Dying a Shinobi Death
by Shyanna
Summary: The strongest allied shinobi nations have been brought to their knees by the Akatsuki, completely obliterating the hidden villages of the Wind and Fire country. Two survive; the jinchuuriki's journey begins here, at the border of oblivion. GaaNaru // AU
1. Total Annihilation

**Dying a Shinobi Death**

**Disclaimer**: This story was not written for profit or fame, merely a tool to release some stress. Entirely fan made, it is in no way associated with the manga, anime, or production companies.

**A/N**: This is a YAOI fic in later chapters, boyxboy, specifically Gaara X Naruto. It is also an EXTREMELY dark piece of fiction, gore, torture, emotional break downs, and otherwise angsty horridness that makes you want to fling blunt objects at the author in rage. You have also been warned that I will throw them right back. (with loving tenderness, I do want you to come back!)

**BETA**: Dancin'Andy

* * *

_Say your prayers little one. Don't forget, my son, to include everyone... _

_Exit light, Enter Night, Take my hand... _

_- Metallica / Enter Sandman _

**Chapter One: **_**Total Annihilation**_

* * *

'_It's not real.' _

Flecks of drywall bounced off of his cheek as he ran through the dusted streets, partially blinded by the flying particles that obscured his path. Booming explosions close enough and loud enough to deafen him were drowned in the swirl of that one, lone, thought.

'_It's not real.'_

This was _not_ happening to his beloved village**;** his home had _not_ erupted in a plume of fire and brimstone, he did _not _just leap over the body of Genma, lying slashed open in the street. There was _not _a current of crimson oozing from his abdomen, there in the path, staining the dirt red and mixing into a muddy mixture of death.

His fists curled as he rounded the corner, and the black loomed before him. His vision was clouded to such a degree that all he could really make out was the swishing red cloud, and thevague distortion of a cloak as the body it belonged to moved, dodging attacks and sending out a myriad of the man's own assaults that was decimating their home.

Relentless.

It was the only word to describe the destruction bestowed upon the panting man's home, the only description that fit an annihilation so complete it had not yet sunk in. His mind threatened to shut down against his will, and his spirits quelled beneath the force wrecking havoc on his habitat.

A powerful current of wind whipped around him, clearing the dust for a brief moment. Time stood still for Naruto Uzumaki as he stared wide-eyed at the shinobi threatening everything so dear to him. His brain refused to spit forth the numbers, and so he named them.

"_Itachi Uchiha_,_"_ He glanced to the left, _"Kisame Hoshigaki_,_"_ Farther to the left, _"Pain."_ He whipped around as a paper butterfly flittered over his shoulder, _"Konan_,_"_ and to her right, _"Zetsu."_

It hit him like a ton of bricks, landing at the center of his heart.

_Akatsuki had come._

"Sabaku no Gaara! How lovely to see you**, **little Kazekage." A smile curled the edge of his pink lips whilst the tongue in his palm lapped at the chalky clay in a sadistic fashion. Blond hair fluttered playfully at the breeze created whenever the bird he stood upon flapped, adding to the sickening atmosphere surrounding the playful ninja.

An explosion rocked the earth several feet beneath him, and the shriek resonated deep within his ear canal. A pink muscle darted out between the lips on his face, licking them with a devious twinkle in his eyes.

"Another Suna shinobi falls." He whispered, taunting the morbidly enraged youth floating on a cloud of sand behind him. Gaara's hands shot out, spread to their farthest width apart before he brought them clashing together with a loud slap of skin. The sand he controlled loomed dangerously at the outskirts of Deidara's vision, but he was prepared.

The clay bird at his feet dive-bombed and he evaded the attack, giggling like a little schoolgirl at the red heads failure to so much as scratch him. "Has Suna fallen so low, my little one? Their leader cannot even catch a bird."

Gaara's normally expressionless features were twisted in the most intense form of hatred ever seen masking his face, and his breath was coming out in harsh pants from exhaustion. His vision was marred with white dots as he glared at the blond zipping about before him. His shinobi were dying by the numbers below them, and their dying screams stabbed at his heart and mind.

He would _not_ fail his village. Their border was far too precious to let the rampant Akatsuki member come any closer**;** even if he was the last standing**, **Gaara would protect his country with every breath in his body. A shuriken bounced off of the immediately conjured sand shield, the metal weapons owner screaming in agony. The Suna shinobi collapsed in a gurgle of pain as blood spewed from his lips, his apology to the Kazekage for his misplaced aim was extracted with his life.

A woman shrieked as a white spider clambered atop her jounin vest, and exploded with a merry chirp.

Gaara roared, an animalistic fury wracking his vocal chords. His throat pulsed in agony, rubbed raw by the force of his scream, but he paid it no mind. With renewed vigor, his fists squeezed together, pale arms moving so fast that they were a blur to the ninja's own eyes.

He would _not_ fail his village.

Deidara squealed in glee as tendrils of sand skimmed his flesh, but never touched him. With a twinkle in his eye the bird he stood upon twirled upwards, creating a slight jet stream in its wake. Beige grains of sand shot after him, crawling over the feathered tail of the fleeing clay figure. Granules rolled over the body, leaving millions of tiny imprints where it sunk into the molding as it shot upwards, latching onto the robed figure's ankle.

A smile crossed his features.

"Good boy."

He sneered, a tiny solider ant formed from his palm dropping onto the makeshift hand crawling up his thigh. It scuttled down into the waves of sand, burying itself deep, nestled between shifting sand, awaiting its order.

A blur of hand signs later, the bird he rode upon dissipated in a cloud of smoke, and Deidara plummeted towards the ground. Gravity ensured that he slipped from the hand made of sand, and from his palm he procured a second means of transportation.

The bird sprang to proportion with a scarcely heard utter of words, and he landed atop it's back with a sadistic smile. Gaara withdrew the tendril that had been so close with a growl, sending the chakra-imbued string flying back towards him. Another was sent in its place, pursuing the blond with vengeance. His lips curled backwards as he snarled like a dog, teal eyes burning with hatred.

He did not feel the small clay formed creature clamber from the sand, and latch onto the black leggings he wore.

'_I'll wake up any second now.'_

An arrow tinted in flaming glory sped millimeters past his nose, and it knocked him out of his stupor. He sprang back, kunai already in hand as he whirled again, facing the Uchiha betrayer and his companions. It was just a nightmare, so that meant he could beat them senseless and wake up with a feeling of achievement.

His black sandals dug into the dirt, toes bent as he crouched down and sprang forward with a powerful release of muscle. Azure eyes stared down the man with his back turned to him, black robes swishing in the wind that it's owner created with his assault. The blade in his hand sunk into his flesh, a furious pain shooting up his wrist and into his elbow.

Pain.

He could feel pain.

He was not asleep, and this was not a nightmare.

Naruto barreled into Itachi with a roar that was not completely his own. Kyuubi's voice mingled with his bellow; almost simultaneously his chakra flared red and rolled over his skin. The oldest of the surviving Uchiha grunted as he was knocked forward, and the force of the impact sent them both sprawling into the dust. Naruto rolled head over heels before coming to a dazed halt, blood dripping down his nose.

'_Must have hit my head on his.'_

He rolled sideways, withdrawing a second kunai from his weapons pouch in the blink of an eye as his feet connected with the path and sent him springing forward. Itachi hissed as they connected again, crimson hued eyes spiraling out of control as his body absorbed the shock of being tackled by something as hard as a body at the velocity it barreled into him with.

A tiny trickle of blood seeped from the corner of his mouth as he forced himself upwards, with a hand supporting his torso to keep him upright. His daze quickly disappeared as a howl ripped through his right ear; the jinchuuriki was still sitting on top of him.

He bucked his hips, throwing Naruto off with a startled yelp, and he sunk the kunai he'd been able to withdraw in the split second following their second collision into Naruto's back. The jinchuuriki howled as pain tore through his spine and into his neck, giving Itachi the time he needed to get up and get out of melee distance.

His hands flew together at a blinding speed, _"Katon Goukakyuu no Jutsu!" _The blond boy squealed as the flames engulfed his right ankle before the Kyuubi's chakra was able to overwhelm his body, protecting him from the flames. The horrendous stench of burning flesh filtered into Itachi's nostrils as his hands flew into a second round of hand signs, but he was cut short as a well placed kicked from Naruto flew into his left wrist, and the snap of his bones pierced the air.

The Uchiha only grunted as pain reared its ugly head up his arm, but he did little else to console himself.

"You little prick!"

The harsh voice dragged over Naruto's ears and he whirled just in time to see the edge of Samehada flying towards his face. He scooted backwards with a series of little pushes into the soil, evading the blade's scale-covered edge by millimeters with every jump. Kisame roared as he withdrew the blade and twirled on his toes, swinging the massive weapon in a deadly circumference.

Naruto winced as it shaved the skin from his fingertips, and his eyes narrowed. They were enveloped instantly in a crimson hue, andhis irises reduced to black slits. _"Kage Bunshin no jutsu!" _He screamed, his bloody fingers meeting one another in a hand sign whilst he continued to skip backwards, trying to escape the range of Kisame's torturous weapon.

Two replicas of himself appeared at his side, andone instantly banished as the scales of Samehada sheered his flesh from his abdomen. Naruto growled as he flipped backwards, cursing as the second clone was caught in the shark man's wildly swinging radius. He spat blood from his mouth at the ground in anger, finding time even then, in mortal danger, to shove his middle finger high into the air.

Kisame chuckled as he continued his melee assault, outright laughing when Naruto shot him his haughty hand gesture. His laughter died away as he was pushed roughly to the side, Itachi glaring at the blond man.

"_Mangekyou Sharingan."_

Naruto cursed wildly as he back-pedaledeven farther, glancing around to find a corner to cross, or something to hide behind. If he was caught in Itachi's _Tsukuyomi_ he was done for. His hands flew together in a wild attempt at saving himself, _"Taiju Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"_

Nearly seventy replicas sprang from thin air around them, and he was barely able to decipher Kisame's laughter above the noise of explosions and screams of those that were dying, or were about to. He glanced around him, studying the rooftops for a moment. He spied Pain and Konan at work, but his mind refused to acknowledge what he was seeing, so he simply looked away.

An idea occurred to him, and he sent the nearest clone – one that had appeared directly behind him – after Itachi, who quickly disposed of it. The replica behind Itachi took that chance to launch at Kisame, who was busy laughing his blue ass off at Naruto's expense. They tumbled into the dirt, distracting Itachi long enough for the real Naruto and the sixty-nine remaining clones to launch themselves at the two Akatsuki members.

The clone atop Kisame was thrown off, and it immediately vanished out of the fabric of reality, erased as it was shredded by Hoshigaki's weapon. Itachi hissed as he was forced to turn his eyes away from the attacking clones. He could not use his _Sharingan_ in this battle; it'd leave him blind for good.

Having dismantled one of the attackers, Naruto set his skill on Kisame with the clasp of his hands, _"Henge!"_ His scream sent twenty-two clones of both Kisame and Itachi on rampage, each clone mimicking its intended persona. The remaining clones sank into Naruto's own stance, a sea of swirling blond hair, fighting off both his own clones and the attacking Akatsuki members.

He connected one solid punch to Itachi's face as he sailed by; narrowly avoiding being caught in the _Katon_ attack the raven-haired Uchiha released in counter assault. He was nearly clear of the battle when the earth beneath his foot rumbled in a pulse of chakra so enormous it knocked him aside.

'_What the fuck?'_

He struggled to remain upright as he ran, dodging falling chunks of homes and shops that crumbled to their foundations in the streets. He skid past a mass collection of paper creatures fluttering madly around a corpse, blood staining they're white bodies. He ran faster, tears licking at the edge of his vision.

He was not dreaming, this was actually happening to his beloved village. He needed to find Tsunade, Kakashi, Sakura, _anyone_! He had to find his friends; he had to protect his loved ones.

The Hokage tower exploded with a flash of blinding white light, leaving Naruto only the chance to catch a brief glimpse of a massive fragment of building material flying towards him before his world instantaneously went black.

Gaara howled into the night air as his arms cried out in pain from continuous motion, his fingers trembling from the never-ending clenching action. He wasn't fast enough to catch the bastard on this new bird he flew about on, with it's dual set of wings and aerodynamic body.

Obviously this Akatsuki bastard was adept at fighting in the skies, so the Kazekage would take it to the ground. The billowing puff of sand he stood upon sank towards the earth, towards the already bloody soil that the life of his shinobi leaked into. His feet squished withthe most awful sound as the muddy ground clung to his sandals**; **the underside of his toes werestained red from sinking so far down into the wet ground.

Exactly ninety Suna ninja had accompanied him on their mission to defend the border; ninety corpses littered the desert floor around him. He hissed as the sand shield burst to life around him, cocooning him in utter darkness as several explosions resounded around him, muffled by the sand that engulfed him.

While he waited for the disperse of the insects as they exploded, his right palm slammed into the sandy encasing's floor, _"Daisan no Me!"_He hissed, his left hand crossing across his chest and holding shut the right eyelid. It took him a few moments to connect his rapidly waning chakra to the optical nerve of his eye, but once the action was completed he gazed out into the darkened night, searching for the looming figure of the blond-haired Akatsuki.

He found him scowling with distaste at Gaara's ball of protection, and Deidara jumped from the back of his bird in anger. The bird itself shot towards the sand encasing, and the explosion rocked the earth beneath Gaara's feet. The man walked casually towards Gaara, stopping a mere foot or so outside of his sand's protective barrier. He sneered. At last he had him; at last that bastard would pay for the murder of so many Suna shinobi.

His right eye opened, dissipating the floating third eye, and both palms came together. He needed to be calm; he needed to be steady and focused to complete the plan swiftly forming in his mind. The chakra left in his body protested as he summoned it all in the pit of his belly, struggling as massive beads of sweat squeezed out of the pores of his skin and splashed against the sand at his feet.

He screamed at the top of his lungs, slamming both hands into the ground as he pumped everything he had left into that one final attack.

"_Gokusamaiso!"_

Outside the sand beneath Deidara's feet rippled as shockwave after shockwave of chakra wracked his body, and the desert floor seemingly melted into a massive sinkhole far too wide for him to escape.

He snarled openly and dove into the satchel at his side, quickly snatching up the last bit of clay he had in his possession. The hand in his palm chewed as fast as it could, softening the clay until it was easy to manipulate. It spat out the lump of white material and Deidara's fingers flew across the now moldable clay, forming the bigger, slower version of his transport.

He threw it a few centimeters above him as the sand began to take hold, and his feet sunk quickly into the earth. The bird popped to life at the single hand seal formed by its creator, quickly descending so the blond man could take hold of its middle section. He grunted with the strength required to pull him out of the quicksand that was so maddeningly trying to drown him in its grains.

The bird's wings flapped continuously as it too strained to pull Deidara from the clutches of Gaara's assault; the cloaked man attached to it cried out as his shoulder was dislocated from it's joint by the forces that were pulling him in two different directions.

"Fucking jinchuuriki brat!" He hissed angrily, chakra spewing wildly around his body as he fought desperately to escape the trap pulling him lower and lower into the earth's belly. With a mighty rip Deidara sprang into the air, blood splashing the descending sand as he was finally dragged away from it's ensnare. His right leg ended at the ankle, pain wracking his body as the torn muscles and ligaments hung unbidden, sprinkling the earth in a shower of blood that poured freely from his body.

The bird he clung to sailed over the earth, landing safely out of reach of the pool of quicksand and allowing Deidara to clamber aboard it's back. They took off as a tendril of sand shot after them, Gaara now standing atop his cloud of sand. A shattering pulse of chakra broke from the Kazekage as the sand beneath his feet suddenly dissipated and he plummeted to the earth unconscious.

Deidara's creation whirled into an aerial about-face maneuver as he sped towards the fast falling youth. He would not allow his bijuu to escape, even if he was injured to such an extent. The tail of the bird was thoroughly coated in crimson droplets as they sped towards the redhead, but they were forced to soar higher as a massive wall of sand suddenly consumed Gaara.

A wild curse flew from Deidara's mouth as the demon roared wildly, Gaara's form barely visible as the Ichibi made its presence known. It's body rolled out from beneath the sand that had previously arisen, massive paws climbing from the waves of granules that fell back to the earth.

The redhead himself swung limply atop its head, his lower body seemingly inside the demons head as it bellowed and clawed angrily at the airborne Akatsuki. Spots of black began to form in Deidara's mind as blood loss over took his senses, and he angrily spit out a slew of curse words directed at the Kazekage.

He'd been so close to getting his little jinchuuriki all to himself, but his injuries were too severe to continue. It was a shame really; he knew the demon would not be able to sustain its form long as its host was obviously weakened to such an extreme. In accordance to his thoughts Shukaku tipped forward, Gaara's torso bending upwards with the force of the weight that drug him down, red hair flying wildly upwards as they fell together.

Ichibi let loose one final roar that sent ripples through the sand, and even tinged Deidara far in the skies with a blast of chakra so powerful it nearly knocked him off his creation. The massive body collapsed onto the desert floor, a fissure forming from his blast of power. An enormous wave of sand shot into the night sky from the blow the earth received, it's previous space left bare as the long stretch of cracked earth gaped at the sky.

The demon's form shrank away, and Gaara tumbled out of sight. Gravity took its majestic hold of the Kazekage and slammed him into the newly opened ravine. Deidara could not help but snicker.

"Serves you right you little bastard." He hissed, fully confident the sand shield would ensure Gaara was not dead. He was tempted to turn back and retrieve the boy, but just as the thought flittered across his mind**,** the wave of sand plummeted back, andan avalanche of beige particles skidded down the opening, returning to capture its previous habitat and burying the Kazekage alive.

"The seven hells!" Deidara screamed, pointing angrily at the fast-filling crevice. He roared as rage overtook him, quickly quelled by a flash of black that threatened to throw him into unconsciousness. The bird he rode upon veered away from Gaara's still body, leaving the redhead to suffer his fate of either suffocation or simply being crushed by the weight of the sand.

Deidara prayed the special sand would protect Gaara from either, because he'd be extremely pissed off if he missed out on the chance of his own demon.

"Where. Is. He."

The low hiss sent a shiver through his companions, but none would show it. Pain stared down his subordinates, glaring at each in turn. They had scoured the ruins of Konoha, burning the buildings as they went to ensure the jinchuuriki would not be able to slip into one already scouted to evade detection. Rubble marred the once beautiful village, the horizon glowing a bloody red across the land. It was a fitting morning for the death of the great Leaf village, but the only ones left alive didn't care to appreciate its symbolisms.

Everywhere corpses were strode, blood marred every doorstep, and glazed eyes stared at one another in their shared embrace by death. Once laughing childrenlied curled into balls as their tiny fingers stretched out for their mothers, lying feet away also reaching out to those they cared for. Akatsukihadspared none.

Shinobi of all ages had fought in the battle to defend their village, children in their first year of the academy stood pinned against trees, tips of shuriken points jutting into the little bodies, handles of kunai sticking visibly out of throats and foreheads.

Jounin vests were no longer green, they glistened dark brown in the rising sun's breath, blood of their owners staining the once proudly worn material. Fingers remained intertwined in partially complete jutsu sequences as death consumed them; the hands they were attached to severed from the arms that had controlled them.

A woman lay atop her lover's torso, his legs lying several feet away. Only the visible gashes littering her corpse revealed the work of Itachi Uchiha'sinfamous Mangekyou Sharingan.

On the other side of the village a slim hand hung limply into a metallic pot, blood still dripping as the pan collected the liquid. Brown hair swirled in the thick moisture, equally brown eyes staring dully at the bar ahead of her. Her once white apron was saturated in the blood of the man lying next to her, a simple butcher knife still clutched in his hand in the defense of his daughter.

A still heated pot sizzled and popped with heat atop the nearby stove, hissing angrily at the lack of material to cook. The noodles had long ago shrunk into thin lines of dough baked solid, spices added to the mixture clinging to the sides of the dried metal. The only remaining portion of their existence was a fragmented collection of partial kanji, _"Ichi," _that protruded forlornly from the dirt outside.

A few centimeters away, the last portion of the sign was serving as a deathbed for two chuunin shinobi. The pink-haired one had forced the raven-headed atop the plaster in an effort to keep his broken spine still as she fought to heal him; her corpse fell vertically across his shoulders as payment for her efforts.

Lee's fading vision captured the image of Sakura's lips as she'd screamed in pain, Kisame's sword shredding her back into strips of flesh. The gaping hole in his abdomen served as a testament to the actions causing his death, scraps of his intestine leaking out when the blue skinned Akatsuki had dove his sword through his flesh, and ripped it back out.

Deeper into the village, two corpses fell together, the third lying over them in their dying breaths. Konohamaru had done everything he could to protect his precious friends, and they'd all paid with their lives.

Moegi's slim fingers were still clutching around his wrist, her orange hair poking out beneath the corpse of Udon who had tried to prevent her death by using his own body as a shield. The long blue scarf Konohamaru wore dripped every so often with the blood that gushed from his throat, staining Moegi's cheek as they landed and fell from her skin to the floor.

The legacy of the White Fang had also perished that night; Kakashi's Sharingan eye ripped from his skull by Itachi's white fingers, followed by a simple farewell. "You are _not_ an Uchiha." Beneath Kakashi's stiff corpse lay the schoolteacher, Iruka Umino. His spiky brown ponytail had come undone, loose flowing brown hair pushing gently against the silver points of Kakashi's.

A scrap of white paper sank into the pool of liquid gathered in Kakashi's gaping eye orifice, thoroughly soaking the material. It was the only real suggestion as to what had befallen the two skilled shinobi, coupled with the thin slice crossing Iruka's jugular vein and the tiniest of paper fragments lodged between his puckered skin.

Farther to the south of the legendary copy nin, unnaturally thin hands clutched to normally bony elbows, their faces pressed against one another. It wasn't his fault, it was in his nature, and the Nara had brought that out in him. A pattern of wings carved themselves around the two fallen boys, the last act Chouji could produce before his life was ripped away.

Shikamaru had always thought Chouji had reminded him of a butterfly, and it had warmed his dying heart to see those fluttering translucent screens of flashing blue and white settled against the boy's shoulder blades. He had not died immediately after the assault; Shikamaru had lived perhaps ten minutes after Chouji's death. He was trapped beneath the boy, weakened by the immense loss of blood.

Even more so he had not wanted to move, because as Pain walked away from them and left them to suffer together, Chouji had decided now was as good as ever.

His thin face found purchase against Shikamaru's, hands clutching tightly around his elbows. _"Shika, I love you."_ A single tear was his response as he held the boy against his chest, sobbing into his wild mane of brown hair. _"I know Cho', I've always known. Don't worry ok? We'll be able to watch the clouds together in just a little while." _His tears stopped there as Chouji's rattling breath ceased to reach his ears, and he clutched harder to the body.

"_Wait for me please?" _One can't live for long with their heart pumping blood into thin air, and so Shikamaru followed his best friend into eternity.

Against all else, perhaps the most devastating was the sight atop the rooftop Naruto had witnessed with his own eyes and he'd so desperately revoked. Her fingers curled against her palm, brown eyes staring out into the sunset as the dip of the roof led her spilled blood to the ground below. Only the purple diamond shape on her forehead gave suggestion as to who she was, for everything below her bottom eyelashes were charred into blackness.

"He must have escaped into the surrounding forest. He shouldn't be very far; he was injured after all." Konan said, gazing wistfully at the tree line surrounding the obliterated village of Konoha.

Pain snorted, "That boy is the container of the Kyuubi; I would not be surprised if he is fully healed and well on his way to another village by now."

A nod ran through the group as they paired off, teleporting to destinations yet unknown. Only Itachi stayed in Konoha for a moment longer, surveying the destruction they'd laid upon his prior home.

A smile flittered across his lips as his hands came together one final time, and he disappeared.

His head was throbbing, sending shivers of pain down his neck muscles and deeply into the muscles of his back. It took him a few moments to force his eyes open, and he was rewarded with utter blackness. Sweat covered his body, the clothing he wore sticking to his skin in the sickliest fashion. In his head the demon was roaring, which was most likely what had awoken him.

'_**Get up boy! We will suffocate if we remain here!'**_

Gaara groaned as he pushed himself upwards, encompassing his pounding temples in his cupped hands, but his torso collapsed back into the bed of sand he lay upon, body shaking visibly from the exertion it required just to sit up.

'_I don't have the strength to move.'_

The Shukaku's response was a pulse of his own chakra, and Gaara's own chakra system greedily ensnared the offered power. Instantly his trembling ceased, and Gaara forced his legs to comply with his minds wishes. He struggled to his feet, the top of his head brushing against a hard packed layer of sand.

Thin, pale fingers stretched out, searching the space he was trapped in. It was his own sand shield; he could feel remnants of his personal chakra pulsing through the grains. The demon with him continued to give off a steady stream of strength, and for the first time in his life Gaara was thankful he was in possession of the raccoon entity.

He knew where hewas now, but he was blatantly confused as to why the shield would not release him. A gentle nudge of his mental strength groped blindly outside of the shield, and he was met with a tremendous wall of something that refused to budge. He pushed harder, eyes furrowed together in concentration.

Only a few grains of sand shifted, otherwise the force he felt remained wholly still and completely intact.

'_What happened?'_

The demon hissed at him within his head, and growled out an explanation.

_**'You fell unconscious, and I took over to save your scrawny ass from certain death. Because your body was so weakened I was not able to remain active, and the earth opened up when I fell. A large wave of sand flew into the air and you fell into the crack. The shield protected you from being crushed by the sand falling back down, but now we are trapped and there is little oxygen remaining.'**_

Gaara's mind was racing, trapped in a current of thoughts that set off a ping of fear deep inside his belly. The amount of sand that had fallen on top of him had to be huge to produce such a strong wall against him, which meant the crack Shukaku spoke of had to be deep.

He knew the sand could be shifted grain by grain, but would he be able to move enough to release the needed oxygen he knew was most likely trapped in small air pockets in the sand? The demon growled in annoyance at his stubborn host, and he hissed angrily at Gaara.

_**'Release me boy; I do not have the strength to decimate your stupid village right now, and I do not have a death wish. If you try to move the sand yourself you will suffocate and kill us both. My body is big enough to force the sand aside, and climb free of this infernal hole.'**_

The Kazekage ran over that plan for a moment, and sighed in defeat. It was true, they would not survive if he tried to free them himself; freeing the demon was the only option available to get them out in time.

His hands came together in a swift line of hand seals, and he whispered dully, "Tanuki Neiri no Jutsu." His red hair thickly clumped from the amount of sweat thatdripped from his bodyandplastered to his forehead as he fell forward, and the demon within emerged. The ground rumbled angrily as it was forced aside, the sand lying atop them soaring heavenward as the massive demon burst from their prison. Almost immediately he was stung by chakra depletion because of Gaara's still deadened chakra system, and he disappeared in a whirl of wind and sand.

The Kazekage's body fell limply from Shukaku's head, a small shower of sand particles landing atop his body as he tumbled to the desert floor. The impact jarred him awake, and he glanced around. Daylight streamed into his vision, burning his eyes that were so used to darkness from the previous night's battle. He blinked heavily and heaved his body upwards, forcing himself to stand erect.

With a sickening twist of his stomach he realized the sand around him was clean. Not a drop of blood could be seen by the naked eye, and that meant his sinkhole for the Akatsuki had also swallowed the bodies of his shinobi. He could not offer the families a proper burial without corpses to bury, and with that in mind he began the long journey back to Suna.

He would come back to the border, and he would dig every one of them from the earth's belly. Gaara decided firmly that as soon as he was able to recover from the exhaustion wracking his body he would return; the Kazekage would not deny the families of his fallen ninja the pain of not being able to pay their respects and whisper their final goodbyes.

It was well into the afternoon before Gaara arrived at Suna, and immediately his heart jumped into his throat. Smoke billowed from behind the wall protecting his village, and with a renewed urgency he limped between the passage that led to the heart ofSunagakure. His green eyes widened in shock so complete and forced his body into ramrod stillness.

_Suna had been annihilated in his absence. _

He ran through the village, screaming at the top of his lungs for anyone left alive. The demon snarled in it's hiding place as he demanded more chakra to keep up his pace, and it reluctantly complied with his insistence.

Small fires burned on the street sides, long gashes marred the walls of buildings and scorch marks littered the outsides of every home. He could distinctly make out a repetitive pattern; that long crack ran across every front door. Gaara ran up to the door of a nearby house, his eyes settling on a small child held in its mother's arms. Both were dead.

"Shit!" He hissed, spinning on his heel and running back out into the street. His feet carried him at a blinding pace as he continued to call out for anyone that might still be alive, but his only answers were the cracking and occasional sizzle of the fires that tried to remain alive in the absence of anything to consume.

The Kazekage tower was still standing, but it had been utterly destroyed. The front half of its wall sat lying in rubble at the base, exposing all three levels to the elements. Even from where he stood he could see the bodies of his own shinobi force lying on the floors, dead.

As his green eyes trailed upwards he caught a flash of something white, and black ringed eyes bulged in terror. He flew towards the building, his flesh a blur as he formed the hands signs and shouted _"Sabaku Fuyu!" _into the dry desert air.

He leapt into the air, his sand pouring beneath his feet as it rocketed him to the highest tier of the building. The Kazekage's own office, and as he had previously suspect, it was Temari's fan that had caught his eye. He jumped from the sand, realizing his mistake only as the groan of a poorly supported floor split the air and gave way.

His hands clasped around his sister's arm as she fell with it, and he pulled her with him as he jumped back onto the cloud of sand. His retrieval came at the expense of the remaining portion of the Kazekage tower, and he watched it crumble to the street with a saddened glance. Temari was dead, there was little to suggest otherwise.

A long gash stretched from her shoulder to her waist, splitting his older sister in half with a diagonal slash. Her normally greenish blue eyes were faintly tinged white, and the four poofy ponytails she loved to wear were not there. Her hair fell to her shoulders as he held her, staring into the deadened eyes of his sister.

Her state of dress suggested the attack had come during sleep, the only time Temari's hair wasn't up. A loose blue shirt covered her chest, coupled with a loose pair of black shorts, undeniably her sleeping attire. Gaara had not cried since he was eight years old, since his uncle had tried to kill him.

But there, floating several feet above the streets of the defeated city of Sunagakure, Sabaku no Gaara wailed like a small child as he clutched the corpse of his sister to his chest.

"_T-TEMARI!" _

* * *

**A/N**: At last! The chosen one has arrived!

Vast amounts of thanks and joy to **Dancin'Andy** for taking time out of her days to wade through my terribad 7yp05, speelengs and gramz skillz *:) - to correct all (or maybe mostly?) of my shenanigans that I subject the world to. :)

She told me with a great deal of politeness that 99% of the time, when the rest of the world says "dragged" and I say "drug" in defiant rebelliousness, it concludes that 99% of the time I'm a dick. (Sad-face sigh)

She also unabashedly beat me with millions of little comas' in red in which I was forced to pick through an ocean of words with a pair of chopsticks to select _76_ grains of rice from stormy water. It was epic. It was painful, but it was epic. (I'm just teasing, there weren't 76. Or maybe there was, you know, after a while you go cross-eyed and keep hunting for the comas in red in your subconscious.)

There were a lot of "ands" too... Apparently I'm phenomenally bad at putting 'ands' in the proper spaces, or at all...actually. (Sad-face sigh again)

Gist of the story, I love to write, I'm decent at it, but damn, do I suck ass at writing _sensibly_. ;) Ms. Dancin'Andy made the world bright again hehe, enjoy a vastly error-free chapter (for once)! We should all say a prayer of strength for her as she works on chapter 2! ^.^

*throws confetti*


	2. Refusal of Submission

**Dying a Shinobi Death**

Disclaimer: This story was not written for profit or fame, merely a tool to release some stress. Entirely fan made, it is in no way associated with the manga, anime, or production companies.

* * *

_They kill inspiration, it's my obligation, to never again, allow this to happen… Where do I begin?_

_The thing I treasure most in life cannot be taken away…_

_I won't make the greatest sacrifice…_

_You'll never take me alive…_

_- Disturbed / I'm Alive_

**Chapter Two: Refusal of Submission**

* * *

His screams reached the heavens, whilst his tears washed away the dirt clinging to her cheeks and neck. _"Temari!"_ He cried, shaking her harshly as her head bounced lifelessly against him.

"_God damn it, Temari!"_

Of course she did not respond to him; he knew she wouldn't, but he tried anyways. Even in the years Gaara had been wholly consumed by his hatred and selfish ways, Temari had always stood behind him. He could not push himself past the point of…of the fact that she was _gone_.

His tears strode down the curvature of his cheeks in a haze of blurred vision and painful sobs wrenched from his chest with every breath. The sun seemed to sparkle as if to tease him, because every time he cried out she moved against him, and it glinted off of her blond hair, making it seem as if she'd moved.

He sat beneath the Suna sun for what felt like eternity, cradling the broken corpse of Temari gently. Eventually the flow of tears drained, and he only stared at her face with a wistful expression marring his features. Memories flashed through his mind; those of when they were children, when they were growing up.

The shocked expression on her face when he'd first called her who she was. The tears that had slipped from her lids soon after, and she'd hid them thinking he would not see. Gaara never missed anything when it came to relationships, not after Uzumaki had drilled the importance of them into his brain.

He'd seen her tears; he'd witnessed the ridiculous grin on her lips as they'd parted ways, right after he'd said, in his flat monotone voice on the way back to Suna from the Chuunin exams, _"Are you all right, Temari?"_

A snort erupted from his lips as he stared down at her face once more, laughing softly to himself when he remembered that Kankuro fell off the tree limb he was standing on at the sound of –

Gaara shot up in haste, his head whipping in all directions. What the fuck was wrong with him? He'd been so absorbed in the heartache Temari's death had brought about that he'd completely overlooked the absence of his brother as well. A painful spike of terror rippled through his spirit as he glanced around; what if Kankuro was dead too?

The sand pooled beneath his feet swiftly descended to the streets marred with smoke and blood, but he paid it no heed. As gently as he could manage with the gourd strapped to his back Gaara lifted Temari from the cloud of beige particles and set her body over his shoulder.

He shifted her around as carefully as he could, until she was straddling the gourd's strap around his waist, her shoulders leaning across his, and her face nuzzled against his neck. It was the easiest position to carry her in with his currently weakened state, so he settled with it. His arms found purchase behind him, drawing her limps legs around his hips and holding them in place.

The gourd itself pressed into her back, securing her in place as he ran farther north of the Kazekage tower, glancing everywhere and occasionally calling out to his brother.

The first thing he noticed was that the world was utterly black; the second thing was the reason why. With a mighty grunt he forced the massive piece of hallowed roofing material off of his body, and was immediately assaulted by blinding light. Naruto hissed as his head immediately pulsed in anger at the battering daylight, and he clutched his forehead in pain.

"Argh," he muttered angrily, shoving the fragment of roof away with an annoyed kick. He withdrew his hand to study it, flinching as the flesh made a strange squishing sound as it came down within view.

He was most definitely bleeding, but for the amount of blood on his hand his head felt surprisingly clear. The Kyuubi ranted at him within his mind, and Naruto openly snorted as it made its presence known. Placing both hands behind his rear, he pushed himself upwards, groaning as his stiff joints protested the movement.

At last he took in the sight around him.

His blue eyes could only stare for a few moments, gazing at the carnage surrounding him. Buildings he'd walked by all his life were burnt to dust, leaving only scorched and smoldering ashes, fragments of housing foundation and burnt corpses that were trapped in the blaze.

His nose seemed to choose that moment to kick into gear, and his head reeled with the amount of blood that swam through the air. His breath came out in harsh gasps as he forced his churning stomach to calm; shinobi instincts were finally overtaking him.

When encountering a battlefield be aware of your surroundings. Search for potential enemies that may still be around. Next, look for any surviving participants, friendly or foe.

He scanned the area around him once, too distracted to realize he'd actually remembered a piece of his training from the academy in full. There was no one near alive, which much was very clear to his trained blue eyes, so he stepped forward.

It took Naruto the better portion of the day to scour the remains of his village, and by the afternoon hours he knew he was alone.

He didn't dare take to the rooftops; what he'd refused to acknowledge last night was set in his mind vividly, and Naruto blatantly refused to set his eyes on what remained of his beloved Hokage. He had watched Pain trap Tsunade in a genjutsu, and he knew what the flame Konan produced was meant for.

An eerie resolution had fallen over Naruto as he worked the day away, finding more and more of his fallen comrades. He knew so many of the fallen it had stopped ripping his heart open by the sixth or seventh and simply reduced to a dull ache that was ever present as he searched high and low for anyone left alive.

His task complete, eyes dull from witnessing so much death, his hands clasped together, _"Taiju Kage Bunshin no Jutsu."_

It took him two more hours with his three hundred clones to dig the graves. He buried those in the same houses next to one another, hoping they were related and could rest in peace in the afterlife. Those he knew personally were buried, as he knew they lived in life, settling the stiff corpses carefully down in their final resting place.

He kissed Iruka's forehead gently when the clone carrying his former teacher walked by, and bid his farewell quietly. Naruto openly shed a tear as Konohamaru's still form disappeared beneath a mound of dirt, and he stifled the onslaught of screams that threatened to burst from deep within him when the blue mask surrounding Kakashi's face fell away.

Sakura would have fallen head over heels for their sensei had she ever seen the features he hid from the world. Sakura…Naruto laid her to rest himself, clutching her body to his own fiercely as he approached the grave to set her in. She was buried alongside her mother and father, Konoha forehead protector in hand.

One of his clones struggled desperately to pry Chouji's grip from Shikamaru, and vice versa was even stronger. They were buried side by side, in hopes that they'd be content to live out eternity with one another. Kiba was buried with the marred body of Akamaru, and though it was strenuous after a task like the one he'd just put himself through, Naruto personally dug out the extra space required to place both corpses in.

Sobs wracked his chest as he watched his clones place both Neji and Hinata in their respective graves, followed by the other Hyuuga clan members he knew. Gai's face was so serious in death it wrenched a sob from Naruto's chest when a clone allowed the earth to swallow him.

Tenten was buried with a kunai still clutched in her hand, and he didn't have the strength to remove it from her fist. Just before the setting of the sun, the final grave was covered, and Naruto sunk to the grassy turf, eyes heavenward.

He cried then, sobbing and screaming out curses and powerful bellows of agony as he stared at the massive graveyard before him. His soiled hands clenched at fragments of grass as he ripped them from the earth, their green blades twisting in his hand.

As true twilight befell the village's ruins, Naruto stood and picked his way through the village, one last task at hand. His clones disappeared as his chakra waned dangerously from the exhausting ordeals of the day, and as he approached the burnt corpse of Tsunade, Naruto realized he had never felt so alone in his life.

He refused to bury her; Tsunade was a free spirit like himself. The demon within him did not refuse his request, and his hands erupted in a flaming red burst of chakra. He stared down at her brown eyes for a moment, a smile on his lips.

"He's waiting for you Baa-chan." He whispered, referring to the unmarked grave of Jiraiya he'd overseen earlier in the day. With that farewell his hands plunged towards the remnants of her beautiful face, and scorched away what remained. Her body reduced to ashes, the next breeze scattered the last great Hokage of the Hidden Leaf.

Like her village, she was gone; only Naruto remained.

He glanced around once at the destruction that had leveled his home, his loved ones, and his life. One more tear fell from his blue eyes, embedded within it the last of the innocence Naruto had kept through the years of shinobi life.

He turned his back on the Hokage Monument, and headed towards the Wind country. He needed to alert Sunagakure that…

That…

Naruto's knees gave way at the outskirt of the forest, and he spewed stomach acid with the previous day's dinner across the ground.

Gaara only dug one grave on that day, his tears already shed, and he did so with his bare hands. The gourd was lying beside him, his sisters corpse there as well as he worked. He would not use the sand in this, Temari deserved the utmost respect, and the best way he could express that was by imbuing the sand beneath him not with chakra, but with sweat.

Her body was set gently down at the bottom of the pit, and he sat on his knees, pushing the sand over her corpse manually. As the last rays of light fell from the heavens, Gaara bade farewell to his sister, plunging her fan at the head of her grave to mark who lied beneath the sand there.

He turned away, staring at the sky above with anger in his green eyes. The day had taken its toll on the Sand's leader, but he clung to that single ray of hope that kept him sane. He had not found Kankuro's corpse amongst the ruins.

That lone fact kept him going, pushed him farther as the demon returned to lend him the strength he needed to face the rest of his village. Gaara limped stoically back into the walls of Sunagakure for the final time, and he asked the demon within for one last request.

His hands came together, trembling but forceful enough to bruise his own flesh, and the dug into the sandy path. Gaara's screams were the last word ever spoken by a shinobi of the sand.

"Ryuusa Bakuryu."

The ground shuttered as power ebbed through it, a colossus wave of sand riding high over the walls of Suna, and burying the village, its people, and their legacy beneath the sand. Suna was dead. Gaara's red hair flashed in the sunlight as his head lowered, and he mentally sent a prayer for the souls of his fallen people. With the last Kazekage task he would ever perform, Sabaku no Gaara turned on his heels and left his home.

Konoha needed to know what had happened before the other villages, because though Suna was allied with several nations, Gaara needed their support personally.

He needed to hear Tsunade's words of comfort; he needed to feel her hand land gently on his shoulder in tender appreciation of his loss. Gaara needed to know he was not as alone as he felt, and only Konoha could offer that to him now. His sanity depended on seeing Naruto's smile straighten, to see his blue eyes fade from their normally happy sparkle to shimmering in heartbreak that rivaled his own at so much death.

He needed to hear Naruto's voice.

Naruto dragged himself by sheer will power through the forests that led to Sunagakure. The night threatened to consume his sanity as the silent darkness only gave way to the wind that whistled in his ears as he flew through the tree branches. He kept hearing the chatter Team Kakashi always struck up on their missions, Sakura's laugh, and Kakashi's manly chuckle.

The night tried to steal away his will, and several times it nearly succeeded. The only thing that kept him going was the idea of Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro. He knew the redhead would only stare at him blankly, but Temari might hug him and Kankuro would try to console his broken spirit. Naruto depended on those actions to keep him alive.

The crackling of branches thundered through the night as he ran, and Kyuubi kept him going. The fox knew how close his vessel was to the edge of insanity, and he would have no chance of being completely released if the brat lost it and threw himself off a cliff in despair.

They reached the edge of the Fire country the next afternoon, and Naruto sped into the sandy reaches of the Wind land with all of the fury that licked his soul. He was so close to those left alive; all he needed to do was reach Suna.

He'd seen him, he watched him disappear into the distance, but Gaara refused to stop. He did not pause in his run to bury Kankuro. He couldn't. Temari had nearly killed him, and he refused to do it again twice in one day.

'We are the shinobi of the sand; let the desert claim her children. '

He ran across the border of the Fire country at nightfall the following day, his body numb and his mind in a state of disarray. The trees greeted him in false hopes of happier times, of finding someone to take care of him while he tried his hardest to return to the world of the living.

Even the Shukaku remained quiet as he ran, and Gaara missed his ranting. At least when the demon was tormenting him it was not so depressing. The silence cut through his soul, and left him clinging with every piece of his humanity to hold on to his sanity. He barreled through the forest's endless acres; only Konoha remained in his mind.

_He needed to hear Naruto's voice._

Naruto stared in dumb shock at the ruins of Sunagakure. Behind the clay walls erected to protect the village from the harsher rages of Mother Nature, the city was buried in a tidal wave of sand. Only the peaks of the tallest buildings stuck out into the day light hours, and Naruto screamed like a rabid animal.

He ran across the desolate plain, roaring at the top of his lungs for anyone still around. Everywhere he looked only white sand glistened in response to his presence. Akatsuki could not have done this, but his training led Naruto to the truth. Ultimately it was what kept him alive that night.

What was left peeking through the massive burial of Sunagakure was burnt and slashed, much like his own village. The sand he walked upon throbbed with the faintest hint of chakra, and he realized with a jolt that Gaara might have survived to bury his people in the only way he could see fit.

Naruto's mind desperately held on to that idle hope and he ran back out into the desert streams. Outside he skidded to a halt as something blinded him from the flashing light, sending the ridiculously frazzled ninja towards it in curiosity.

Temari's fan was dug harshly into the ground, already partially covered by the sand that curled around it, but it meant someone had survived to bury her, and he prayed harder than he had ever done in his life that it meant Gaara had lived long enough to bury both his city and his sister, so maybe that meant he was still kicking. He glanced around wildly as if expecting someone to wave at him and call out.

His blond hair whipped wildly as a storm threatened to kick up, and he glanced heavenwards again. The fates were truly against him, he decided, as he leaned against the wall protecting the dead village, and sunk to the desert floor.

'Kyuubi.'

The fox poked his head between the metal bars that imprisoned him, and growled at Naruto.

'_**What do you want brat?'**_

The blond stared at him for a few moments, trying to figure out how to word his proposal.

'They took everything. Help me find them, and kill them, and I will set you free.' That seemed to do the job well enough as the demon chuckled maniacally and grinned viciously.

Naruto's eyes snapped open as he found himself once again staring out into the desert landscape; his sense of smell increased tenfold. It nearly made him hurl again, but he quickly departed Suna, following a faint trail of scent that made his heart beat ridiculously fast.

It led to the south, and with a jolt of speed Naruto flung himself back towards the Fire country.

Gaara took one look at the remains of Konoha, and collapsed in exhaustion.

It wasn't until the following afternoon that he awoke; vaguely surprised he was still lying in the same spot that he'd fallen. The Ichibi had not taken over, but granted, Konoha was already destroyed; there was no need for him to.

'_**Very good.'**_It jeered at him, and Gaara rolled his eyes.

Like Naruto, Gaara searched the ruins for anyone he could place, but the village was completely empty. It gave him the faintest trail of confusion as he wondered if the villagers had managed to evacuate the city before it had been destroyed, but the intense wave of blood that engulfed the air around him begged to differ.

And then he stumbled across the graveyard. The sight caught him off guard, and he stared as row upon row of freshly upturned dirt assaulted him, drowning out all other scents at its overpowering strength. Somebody, more likely a few some-bodies, had survived the slaughter judging by the job they'd performed here.

Shukaku snickered at him, _**'Or someone that can create massive shadow clones.'**_

Gaara shoved the demon farther down, and he tried to ignore the beat of his own heart as he mulled over the possibilities. His green eyes roamed over the hundreds of graves that littered the land before him, and trailed back towards the destroyed village of Konohagakure.

_Someone had survived the Akatsuki slaughter._

It seemed the gods had placed the task of burying the dead upon his shoulder, because as Naruto dragged his fatigued and starving body back towards the desert, he too stumbled across the partially buried body and head, coupled with his puppet, of Kankuro.

Unlike Gaara however, Naruto was not so trusting of the desert. He dug a shallow grave and lugged the bloated body towards it, apologizing profusely as he dumped it in; unable to take care when it stunk so badly. The head he rolled in with the tip of his finger, trying his hardest to look at anything other than the bloody stump lest he throw up all over it, too.

The puppet also found its home next to its owner, and Naruto said a small prayer for the shinobi to find peace in the afterlife.

With that done, he continued on towards the border of the Fire and Wind, his eyes taking on double of everything in his exhausted stature. It was only by the power of the fox demon that he made it out of the blistering sand's engulfing rays of heated death, and into the waiting arms of shady tree roots.

The next morning Naruto awoke to the chirping of birds and gnawing pain in his belly. He used the fox's borrowed powers to lead himself to a stream that ran through the forest, and drank deeply from its cool, crystal waters. Following the sating of his raging thirst, he found a thick branch nearby, snapping off its end until it formed a crude point, and fished out his breakfast.

Years of shinobi missions and the scrounging required to survive on them allowed his body to digest the bloody meat of his caught salmon without putting up too much of a fight, though he did make good use of the abundant leaves as soon as it flushed through his system.

Feeling a great deal better now that his body was not consuming his relatively small amount of stored body fat to keep it going, he started towards Konoha with a renewed vigor. Halfway there he idly wondered if Gaara had truly survived, and it wasn't just his mind playing tricks on itself to ensure he didn't do something rash.

Kyuubi interrupted his thoughts there, reminding him that his brain could not fabricate Gaara's scent out of thin air in such a straight line towards the village. If it had simply conjured his smell from memory it would be in every direction Naruto turned, and the blond did not think twice of the matter.

As the day wore on and he ran through the trees, a tendril of fear snaked through his belly as he considered what might occur on the other end of the spectrum, or, farther down the situation. If Gaara _was_alive, and if he was Naruto was certain he'd found the slaughter of his village, perhaps even witnessed it first hand, would he be sane enough to approach?

Though he was no longer hungry beyond measure and his vision was no longer distinctly showing him two's of everything around him, Naruto was in no condition to battle it out with a released raccoon. Kyuubi once again offered him a solution, and the blond teenager jumped down to the forest floor.

His palms pressed into the dry dirt heavily as he concentrated with his entire mind, and pumped wave after wave of the fox's chakra into the ground. It ricocheted off of everything in the earth in its path, rebounding back at Naruto in flashes of images.

Tree roots everywhere, insects burrowing into the dirt, recoiling as chakra bounced off of their bodies and cooked them on the spot. He pushed harder, and the blast increased tenfold, reaching the very edge of Konoha itself. Halfway there, just a few miles south of his current position, Naruto found the Kazekage.

Gaara's head snapped up as he was knocked off of his feet, a powerful blast of chakra consuming his senses as he bounced off of the forest floor. His mind reeled with the impact; already delirious from the lack of food and water, he snarled openly, believing himself to be the target of an attack. Sand whirled around him as it cushioned his fall, but almost immediately after he realized that the chakra was familiar. That was the Kyuubi's chakra he'd witnessed when Naruto had helped him recover Matsuri from the Takami village's ninja.

He was on his feet in seconds, racing with everything he had left in him towards the shinobi that was obviously searching for something.

He nearly ran past him his mind was so distorted, but as the face he'd placed everything upon these last few days loomed closer to his own confirming his hopes, Gaara skidded to a halt, breathing heavily. His green eyes locked with Naruto's blue for a split second, and he fell into unconsciousness.

Naruto grunted as the redhead collapsed against him, reaching outwards to capture his fallen comrade before he struck the ground. He dragged the Kazekage towards a nearby tree, and set him to rest beneath its shade as he looked him over once. Gaara had most definitely witnessed the assault on Konoha, he reeked of the earth Naruto had overturned to bury those of his village.

His first instinct was to find water, if anything simply because the dried blood, long ago clotted on Gaara's cracked and bruised lips gave desperate pleas for the precious liquid. Naruto scampered away, peeling the flap of his weapons pouch open and driving his fingers into its depths, withdrawing a kunai as he sprinted towards the river he knew to be close by.

It was extraordinarily lucky for the blond that they had met in the Fire country, because here giant lily pads sprung up amongst the reeds, and nothing held water like that particular weed. His feet sent ripples through the water as he ran atop the current, searching for one to use. Upon its discovery he used the edge of his blade to hack through the thick, spongy stem, cupping a large mouth full of glassy water between the curled folds of the plants head.

Carefully, he picked his way back towards the Kazekage, trying with all of his might not to spill any of the liquid. When he returned Naruto found the redhead awake, staring dejectedly at the ground. The Kyuubi container approached him cautiously, holding the precious water to his chest as he eyed Gaara wearily. The Kazekage's green eyes were wild, red-rimmed in bodily exhaustion and the muscles in his neck popped out in a sporadically convulsing manner.

He was staring back at Naruto now, out of the corner of his charcoal encircled eyes, his head falling backwards across his shoulders with his mouth slightly agape. A loud rumble erupted from the red head's belly, spurring Naruto forward towards his despairing friend. He squatted in front of Gaara, tipping the lily pad forward, careful to ensure he didn't drown the only partially awake Kazekage with a handful of water and a flower.

Gaara snapped out of his delirium off and on as the cool waters slid down his raw esophagus, and his hands shot up to clutch greedily at the plant. Naruto fended off his feeble attacks, careful to maintain the steady stream of water to the poor man lying half-dead aside him.

He smiled faintly as Gaara's eyelids fluttered closed in ecstasy at the soothing, silky trails of liquid.

"Feeling better?" Naruto asked as the lily pad surrendered the last few drops, relinquishing Gaara's throat to a burning craving for more of the precious liquid. He coughed openly and nodded, lifting his head up to gaze fully at Naruto.

"Yes, thank you." Gaara stared hard at Naruto, and a hand reached out, soiled fingertips gently brushing against the dirty skin of the bland ninja's cheek appreciatively. His pale fingers slid farther back, touching the taunt muscles that coiled around the last Konoha shinobi's neck.

"You're real." He muttered, his green eyes fading momentarily as another wave of exhaustion rode over him. "I thought I might be hallucinating; I know I had seen you before, but when I awoke I was alone." Gaara explained as his finger withdraw and fell tiredly into his lap. Naruto smiled at him painfully, "I'm real."

A second rumble met the fox container's sensitive ears, and he glanced down at Gaara's belly. The red head followed his eyes and stared emotionlessly at his own stomach, too tired and out of it to comprehend what it meant. Naruto scooted closer, wrapping an arm beneath Gaara's, and pulling him to his feet.

"I caught some fish in the stream earlier. It's not exactly a gourmet meal, but it will give you strength," he said, and the former Kazekage only nodded as his legs gave out and he fought to hold his own weight and limbs that refused to work. Naruto seemed to understand the dilemma he was in however, as he simply slid around front of Gaara, allowing the deathly weak ninja to fall across his back.

His hands curled around Gaara's thighs as he hoisted him up upon his back, and stalked off towards the stream. While he'd been hunting for the lily pad earlier he had noticed a small clearing near the bank of the river. It was only slightly overgrown, most likely remnants of a Konoha party returning home. When they arrived he gently set his companion down at the riverside, and left him to drink his fill as he set about searching for something suitable to feed Gaara.

That first night they settled for raw fish, both of them far too tired to coax the demons within to lend a burst of chakra to properly start a fire. Naruto was more or less left with the task of ripping the fish's flesh apart, and shoving them down Gaara's throat. It wasn't a particularly enjoyably job, nor was it pretty, but it served its purpose.

Neither ate the following day, but instead its hours flew by as the last of two of the five great shinobi nations slumbered away, each too tired to dream. On the third day of their reunion Gaara awoke first, his mind relatively clear and hungry as all hells.

He sat up, stifling a groan at the stiffened joints and muscles flexed and pulled, sending small shots of tingling pain through his body. He glanced around, studying the landscape and at last the man lying opposite of himself. Naruto was visibly shivering, Konoha's wrathful winter sending the first of its chilly fingers across the lands.

He tactfully avoided mulling over the reason as to why the two of them were together in the middle of nowhere; he could not afford to suffer a mental breakdown here.

Gaara forced himself to his feet, his hands finding one another as his eyelids sank to cover his green eyes, and he searched the surrounding forest. A den sat nearby; a pack of doe nestled together to avoid the beginnings of what promised to be a chilly day. The sand of his gourd immediately shot out and captured one of the thickened beasts before she could detect her impending doom.

She gave a high-pitched squeal as sand invaded her wet nose and mouth, and fell silent. The shriek sent Naruto flying into awareness, and he bolted upright, glancing about with a kunai already in hand. He calmed as a flash of sand filtered into view, dragging a rather large female deer in its pull.

He only spared Gaara a single glance before his body rocked upwards and he ambled into the forest, pulling large branches from the trees they clung to. Before long they had an ample supply of wood, enough to cook the meat Gaara was currently slicing away from the deer's haunches. The beast swung haphazardly from the tree he'd tied it to, avoiding at all measures the organs that had spilt from her corpse.

Gaara's blade cut cleanly through the meat, and as his task finished he licked the blood from his fingertips, and the kunai he'd used to strip her bones of the life giving food she'd produced. Naruto watched him every now and then when he returned with another load of firewood, and he took note of the ritual at the end.

Kakashi had often told him whilst they ate from packed food, that if it was ever forced a hunter that respected nature would sip from the life blood of his kill, in tradition it was a rite of passage for the animal. Its spirit was allowed to slip into the stream of life and death once its killer drank of its blood. It was only a thimbleful, they were not vampires after all, but it gave solace to the creature's soul that its sacrifice was needed, and not a simple game of killing.

He watched for a moment longer and turned back to his own task, musing over the fact that he'd never actually seen anyone practice that tradition. The last pile clattered atop its predecessors from his arms, and Naruto sank in front of the mound, trying to shape it into something usable.

Once he was happy, one tan hand came to rest at the top of the pile, and it ignited in a chakra induced flame. He watched it glow to life, blowing gently on the flame until it was hot enough to consume more wood. Gaara passed the time it took Naruto to build their fire with fashioning a makeshift stake, impaling the slabs of meat he'd cut away at the ends.

The smell of cooking meat drove them both insane for a while, and both teens scarfed the food down like rabid animals. Once their meal was finished, Naruto took the remains of the animal and deposited it in the forest, leaving what they would not eat for those carnivores lucky enough to pass by to devour it's freely won meal.

Gaara used Naruto's absence to his own advantage, plunging his body so thickly clad in dirt, grime, and blood into the river. The water sent chills through his body, but eventually his limbs numbed and he no longer felt the pain. He sank beneath the surface for as long as his breath would hold, furiously running his long thin fingers through the red mop atop his head, trying to rid it of whatever stuck to it.

When he surfaced Naruto was on the bank side, removing his own jacket and shirt. They had not spoken since their initial meeting, and Gaara saw no reason to break the silent pact now. He turned away as the blond slipped his pants off, and dove into the waters. The splash was his queue to resume his task of bathing, and both of them greatly enjoyed the relief of a clean body.

Naruto returned the favor as he turned away; he noticed Gaara was approaching the bank with intent to get out. He stared down at the water rushing past him, catching sight of his own fingers beneath the rippling current. How were they going to survive this?

What would become of them? Would they live like this until they finally grew so sick of one another that they released their demons and beat each other to death? Would one leave, in one fashion or another, sending the other over the edge from loneliness? His head dipped beneath the waters as he mulled over the choices they had, and none came to mind that gave him any sort of comfort.

They were truly alone in the world now, not even the sting of insults from other human beings to strike at them. He pushed his head through the current, gasping for air as he surfaced. He shook his head roughly. No, they were not alone, not really.

Suna and Konoha had been decimated, that was very much true. But that did not mean the other nations were wiped out as well, Akatsuki only had so many members, and they could not have wiped out all of the other hidden villages in such a short time. Besides all of that, as far as he knew, they had only attacked the hidden villages, which might mean the other cities and towns littering their respective countries were unharmed.

It gave him a might surge of warmth in his chest as he thought of the cheery people that awaited them. Warm beds, food, and people, most of all, the other towns had_people that were alive._

That idea prompted him to get out of the frigid waters, and he hurried back to dress. He found Gaara sopping wet from head to toe, only noticing then that while he'd been daydreaming about other human life the red head had also dunked his clothes beneath the waters, cleansing them of the blood and dirt that stained them.

He was paying the price for his cleansing however, his body visibly shook with the cool wind that swirled at the water's edge. Naruto slinked onto dry land, slipping into his still dirty attire. They couldn't avoid conversation forever, so he took the time offered to him now, while they were still peaceful and at least partially sane.

"Did you have anywhere in mind?" He asked quietly, kicking a pebble from the shoreline back into the stream it had somehow escaped from. Gaara shook his head roughly and returned to the dying fire side, staring into its orange depths as he too thought over what lay ahead of them now that they were out of danger and clearly going to live.

"I was thinking maybe the Akatsuki just attacked the hidden villages…which would mean that the other towns might still be untouched," Naruto pushed, his gaze still fixed upon the ground. For some reason he could not bring himself to look at Gaara directly, but he knew the red head was considering his suggestion by the way his body relaxed.

"Where is the closest village?" Gaara's raspy voice rang out, and Naruto visibly flinched at the raw sound his obviously damaged throat created, "Maybe twenty miles North of Konoha." He answered, finally wrenching his blue eyes from the dirt to settle on Gaara's impassive face.

The former Kazekage nodded, and set about dousing their fire. It was not yet noon; they would reach the city by nightfall if they hurried.

* * *

A/N: Whoo! Chapter two already! cheers This story is running away with me, far too much planned way too early in advance, that might mean I'll actually finish it. x.x

A note of preparation, this chapter is the last in their teenage years, the seven year time skip begins here. So hang on tight darlings, the next chapter shall rock you off your comfy seats.


	3. Killing Innocent's Murderer

**Dying a Shinobi Death**

Disclaimer: This story was not written for profit or fame, merely a tool to release some stress. Entirely fan made, it is in no way associated with the manga, anime, or production companies.

_**NOTICE**_: The following chapter contains harsh references to abuse of both physical and sexual nature. If your squeamish on the topic, skip down to the cut, it's about mid chapter and after that break there are only referenced statements to the incident.

* * *

_Breathing in lightning, Tonight's for fighting, I feel the hurt so physical…_

_And as we speak I'm going down…  
Think twice before you touch my girl, Come around I'll let you feel the burn…_

_Eve Six // Think Twice_

**_Chapter Three: Killing Innocent's Murderer_**

**Seven years later…**

"Are you sure?" She squeaked, green eyes blinking owlishly at the slob in front of her. The man nodded vigorously, a sickening grin on his lips as he licked them in an attempt to come off as sexy. Her green eyes followed his tongue, a fascinated expression following the thick and heavily salivated muscle. He snickered inwardly, the girls these days were so easy.

His chubby fingers snuck around her thin wrist, squeezing lightly. "So darling, where do you live?" His voice was already thick with arousal, and the adorable red head tilted her head as her eyes narrowed, a devilish grin on her lips. Ah, so she was not so innocent.

"I'm not from this town actually, so no one will ever know…" Her voice trailed off and left the end of the sentence for him to decipher. He plunged in feet first.

"Ah, can't believe my luck tonight. Finally landed me a red head, always wanted to see if the stereotype was true." His voice reached a deep pitch as he eyed her body openly, he honestly could not believe his fortune.

She was the definition of desirable. Her thighs were thick and full, rounding off into an ample curvature of her backside that begged to be groped. He wasn't so keen on the tiny waist, he was a big man after all, and he liked something to hold on to when he pounded them into the mattress, but it just added to the sex appeal she radiated.

He fantasized sadistically the expression on her face when he succeeded in metaphorically, and judging by her physique, possibly literally, breaking her. The thin black blouse she wore covertly exposed the heavily curved breasts that bounced in such a tempting allure as she squirmed suggestively atop her bar stool.

The deep purple eyeliner shaping her emerald eyes only added to the alluring blood red hair pulled back into four short ponytails, he would have to do away with those. He liked their hair to move as they did beneath him. He loved to watch the strands stick to their skin as sweat lathered their bodies; it turned him on unbelievably when they screamed if the hair was loose, flying wildly.

He leaned forward, dirty blond hair swishing in front of his sweat tinged forehead as his cheek grazed her own, his lips breathing reeking breath against her ear. It was because of that he missed the flash of obsidian overtake her green eyes, and the golden diamond overpower her normally black pupils.

His hands slid up the pale skin of her arms, rubbing them suggestively. "You know the stereotype right? They say red heads are fire crackers in bed." He hissed, completely lost in his own twisted desires. Though he had missed the split second reaction of her face, his true mistake was shooting a_ 'too easy' _wink at the husky blond man seated two stools away.

His eyes turned back to her creamy skin that covered her jaw line, and he leaned down to lick the dainty bone structure. She snickered openly, and he smirked against her face, mistaking the sound for one of pleasure.

"Let's get out of here, I think that blond guy over there wants to steal you away from me." He whispered into her ear, and was once again totally oblivious to the murderous gleam in her green eyes. His words were accompanied by a forceful grip on her arms, as if to show his catch that even if she wanted to, he would not let her escape from the predicament she'd landed herself in.

She stood with him, still caught in his bruising grasp as he drug her out of the door. On his way past Naruto, he pushed her with a rough nudge and scooted her small figure several feet ahead. She stumbled and glared over her shoulder but continued towards the door anyhow, stopping by its frame as she waited for him.

He leaned over the well-muscled frame of the blond man, snarling into his ear. "I wonder how her scream sounds?"

Naruto visibly tensed, but it went unnoticed by the untrained eye of the bragging hefty man. He glanced over his shoulder to meet the dull gray blue eyes that were brimming with desire for his red headed snare, and an open challenge to Naruto. His own azure orbs sparkled with sickening amusement.

"If you can manage to squeeze your fat ass in between those stick legs, maybe you'll find out." He chuckled back, and the man snorted.

"Yet _you_ are alone, pretty boy."

Naruto's mouth quirked at the edges, a faint smile on his lips. "I'm sure I'll find someone to take home by the end of the night. Not a lot of people can resist this tempting body." He threw back, but the words were not meant for the man in front of him. He could not fight the smile on his lips as someone else's extremely heightened hearing picked up on the snide remark.

Her green eyes narrowed in the vaguest of motions, but Naruto picked up on it out of the corner of his eyes. He loved to mess with Gaara on his espionage nights.

"Well, I suppose." Ugh, the sleazy bastard was back in his world. A set of beady blue gray eyes washed over Naruto's black trench coat covered backside, and he snickered. "But then again, there isn't anyone else in this bar that's half as tempting as that little red head waiting on _me_, now is there?"

Naruto did not deem his question worth answering; Gaara would rip his head off if he responded how he wanted to. He simply gazed lazily over the other patrons of the bar they stood in, and forced a frown on his face.

"Eh, I guess it depends on your tastes. She's too skinny for me." He said loudly, viciously squashing the chuckle that tried to break free as Gaara visibly glared at him. The round-bellied man roared obnoxiously and broke their conversation there.

"Stupid boy, don't know a good fuck when you see one." He called over his shoulder as he waddled towards Gaara, and Naruto's eyes narrowed a fraction.

'_You. Are. Dead.'_

Gaara's face instantly smoothed out as the plebian came within distance of normal vision, plastering a half smirk on her lips. The thick left arm belonging to the man so blissfully unaware of the waves rolling off of the blond man wrapped around Gaara's waist smugly, and steered her out into the heated night.

His hand tightened on her hip as they moved through the drunken crowd surrounding the late night shopping district, pointedly showing off his latest catch to those hungry eyes that followed the red heads figure. He led her through the maze of streets, turning every so often.

Gaara was not an assassin to be so easily lost in the city they'd been scouting for weeks, and she smirked to herself at the ridiculous tactics this man was taking to try and lose anyone on their tail, and also to confuse the girl at his side. As she had so blatantly pointed out, the stupid, stupid girl, she was not from his hometown, no one would ever notice the screams nor would they miss a body they never knew about.

The man Gaara was currently refraining from strangling by the hardest of forced calm façade worked as a bodyguard to the cities leading political figure. A figure that had all ten fingers dipped in Akatsuki black market goods, and if he could get him to open up a little in exchange for their promised fun, Naruto and Gaara would be closer to their objective.

Gaara himself hated when he had to step in, he preferred to act the foreign bad ass in these situations; much like Naruto had just done. Unfortunately their previous stint several days before had given them the pain in the ass stipulation that Mr. Bodyguard did not like blond girls with pigtails, thus Gaara was forced to take over while Naruto stood by quietly.

He _loathed _the people that they often found themselves trapped with. All of them were so disgustingly plain and ignorant it pained the red head to put up the impression of being interested. It wasn't just men that occupied their espionage skills, there were several women both men had wiggled their way into equally exposing situations to pick up the insight on their smaller goals in order to achieve their overall objectives.

The information had landed in their lap nearly a year after the initial destruction of Konoha and Suna, Akatsuki was aware they survived the destruction. Driven to perform what little act of respect they could for those that had perished, both boys had unintentionally alerted their prospective assassins that they still walked amongst the living.

They lived in constant motion now, traveling everywhere they could to avoid detection, and going so far as Naruto teaching Gaara his childhood prank jutsu. It had become a notorious weapon to their surprise, and to Naruto's wholesome amusement.

_No one_ could say no to those luscious lips, those wickedly sexy green eyes, and heaven forbid even those proclaiming themselves homosexual did not sneak a peek at that godly figure. Gaara found himself licked and kissed by the most disgusting of creatures that inhabited their world, but he put up with it because it was necessary.

Well, that was part of the reason. He would never, _ever,_ tell the other half to _anyone. _No one would ever hear those words come out of his mouth, because he was quite sure Naruto would abandon him if he ever caught wind of the fact that Gaara put up with the ridiculous performance because it did something so horrendously intoxicating to the twenty three year old ex-Kazekage's stomach that he was wholly addicted to.

Whenever someone got too close, whenever they stepped over that invisible but clearly drawn line, Naruto killed with a passion. The man clutching so possessively to her waist at that moment had unmistakably tramped all over that line, and then jumped to the other half of Naruto's brain that spelled out a most terrible demise for him.

Gaara was giddy just anticipating the show his blond companion of seven years would give him that night.

He _loved _watching Uzumaki's blue eyes narrow like they had in the bar, because it meant he was pissed off. Naruto only narrowed those beautiful orbs in that particular way when someone suggested what was obviously happening, but voiced it verbally to Naruto while Gaara was undercover.

It always sent tendrils of excitement though Gaara's belly when the killer he traveled with lost control like he knew would happen once the information they needed was extracted. Naruto _hated_ when someone tried to act is if they had won Gaara's affections if only for one night, in male or female form, it enraged the blond man to such a morbid extent that it made the red head feel like he was a gem.

The first time it had happened Gaara had been uncomfortable, blatantly displeased that Naruto seemed to think he couldn't kick the perverts rear end to high heaven that was groping his ass in his female form, but the words that spewed from Naruto's lips on their first trial run of Gaara's feminine version had thrown his thoughts in a whirlwind.

He could still hear them clearly in his mind, and it brought a smirk to his lips that the pig next to him interpreted as a show of excitement for the 'pleasure' to come her way. Gaara could only chuckle along with the Shukaku at the prospect of a forecast; the night would shower them in warm blood.

"_Did you really think you were good enough for him?"_

Oh how those words had tormented Gaara for months after Naruto hissed them in the face of the man that had tried to force him down and take what he wanted. Of course Gaara's struggling had only been for show, just in case the twisted man would reveal a little scrap of information to his victim as he stole what was precious.

Naruto had not given him the chance to see if it would happen though, because in the blink of an eye that particular person had been shredded in seven different directions with claws sprouted in an instant. It had been absolutely magical to the red head that had only lain on the floor in a daze at the actions of his partner.

_Naruto was extremely protective of him._

Ever since he'd come to that realization he'd held a hope every time it was his turn to gather information that the target was a bastard, because it'd meant he'd see the vicious beast that was Naruto whenever Gaara was 'in trouble'. Of course the blond firmly stated many times over that Gaara should not place himself in such situations, that if their target ever had 'buddies' he could not help him in time.

That conversation turn usually pissed the red head off to no end, because it meant Naruto seemed to be forgetting who he was. But once over, the sheer _hatred_ that flashed through those blue eyes suggested something far deeper then simply forgetting whom it was that was posing as a helpless girl.

Naruto could not stand to see someone wrapping their disgusting fingers on Gaara's skin, and may the spirits have mercy on those that forced a kiss on the redhead. The slob next to him had _licked_ him, and Gaara giggled gleefully as he waited ever so patiently for the night's end.

"Excited are we? Don't worry your pretty little head girl, I'll blow your mind away." The deep rumble almost a head above him severed Gaara's thoughts, and he shot the man a genuinely sexy smile that was only meant for one person, and that was the trench coat clad man slipping through the shadows a few feet behind them.

"I'm sure," was all the girl said as they continued to walk, slipping farther and farther away from the heavily crowded areas and deeper into the obviously trashy end of town. They reached a motel nestled in shadows, and Gaara glanced over his shoulder with a ruthless grin on his lips.

He could clearly see the flash of red irises as Naruto fought desperately to control himself, and turned back to their destination. "I thought you were taking me to your house?" She asked quietly, widening his green eyes in mock surprise.

"You said you'd give me your bosses number so I could apply for a job." She whined, eyeing the run down motel in distaste that was absolutely genuine. His deep chuckle rolled over Gaara's skin nastily, and her shoulders squared at the nerve it took to repress a shudder.

"Yeah, I will, _after_ I get what I was promised." Gaara could not repress the smirk on her lips at the sheer stupidity of the man, and at the fact that his words were causing Naruto to openly snarl. He never could understand how people like this man made it in their world, because anyone only half awake could hear the wild hisses behind them.

Fortunately for her, this particular man had the awareness of one whom was sleepwalking, and so she wallowed in the wonderfully angry sounds Naruto spit out. It was a little perverse, that was true, but Gaara couldn't help but relish in the idea that his only friend was so ridiculously protective of him.

Seven years spent at Naruto's side night and day seemed to make them almost a single entity everywhere else, but on nights like this, when their mission took them into places neither would have sent their worst enemy into, their differences were made very, very clear.

Gaara preferred to lazily imply all sorts of suggestive things to those that thought they had a half a chance with Naruto's feminine, or hell, even his original form. He loved to sit so casually and appraise the body under discussion, more so in the last few years of their lives because Naruto had taken on a strong tendency to blush like a true women if he was within earshot.

Afterwards, if it was deemed necessary to cause a scene, Gaara preferred to remain in the shadows and kill the party that had so offensively slobbered on _his_ companion. Of course Naruto himself was not aware that he was in fact, Gaara's, and no one else's, but that was not the subject at hand.

Naruto was on the opposite of the spectrum, he liked to tease Gaara and point out that he was far too thin in both forms, and that his rear didn't change shape at all. The redhead had a naturally well-endowed backside, and Uzumaki loved to harass him about it. Those comments were made in character of course, but Gaara could easily decipher what was being said between the lines.

Naruto didn't give two shits either way if it was necessary to kill or not if those that sank their greedy fingers into Gaara's skin were dim enough to cross the afore mentioned line. He openly showed his face to those personal space intruders, and nothing would satisfy his fury until they begged for their mothers and their death. The Kyuubi actually reigned supreme on the calmer nights, when they murdered whom they had to in order to get the right reaction from the right people. It was purely Naruto that stole the life away from the Gaara-feelers.

A rough jerk shook Gaara into awareness again, and he mentally berated herself for zoning out so long. She stared at a door with a number long ago torn away; leaving only the faint residue of its previous cover and a rusted nail that would probably crumble to dust at a touch. Her nose crinkled as the smell of alcohol drifted towards her, and it was not the pleasant sort that she and Naruto indulged in when they felt the need to relax.

She distinctly heard two voices inside of the room they were just outside of, both male, and both well intoxicated by the slurs of their words. The man she arrived with shoved her roughly forward again, and she backed away from the room in feigned confusion. "There's people in there." She pointed out, her spiky red ponytails glinting in the half-dead street light.

He snickered and lunged towards her, wrapping a pudgy hand around her left tufts of hair. "Yeah, I always share with my buddies." He hissed into Gaara's face, and she held her breath in fear of being knocked unconscious by the stench. She squirmed in his grasp as he laughed and twisted the doorknob open, yanking her hair as he wrenched her inside.

Gaara growled low in her chest as a few strands of red hair came out in his palm, but she kept it quiet enough that no one heard. Instead she opted for an audible yelp as she bent her knees in mock helplessness, and clattered to the floor as he pushed her again.

Her skirt rode up, revealing pale thighs as she bounced off of the once beige carpet that was stained with years of god knows what, and lay on the ground trembling. The two men already in the room eyed her evilly, nudging each other in the rib cages harshly at the beautiful creature on their floor.

Gaara had tried on several occasions to force tears out of his eyes in situations like this, but his acting skills ended there, so he chose to tremble and whimper in replacement. She scooted away, but calloused hands snatched at her ankle and drug her back towards the group.

Her skirt slid up as her rear slid across the rough carpeting, and she kicked feebly at the hand gripping her leg so forcefully.

"Where do you think your going, bitch? You came here for a good time, and we'll give it to you." Came the slurred hiss at her protests, but Gaara only squirmed in the man's grasp and whimpered louder. Inwardly, she was snickering wildly as an extremely familiar wave of chakra loomed just outside of the door.

"W-what are you d-doing?" She cried, yelping as the fat man returned and slapped her ruthlessly across her face.

"Do you really think I'd fall for some stupid bimbo like you? What's a whore want with Mr. Maruyama anyhow? I don't know what your after but your not going to get it." He snarled, yanking her hair roughly. He jerked his head at his companions, and the two men suddenly lost their drunken stupor as they sprang from the bed.

One barreled down on Gaara, shoving her onto her back and straddling her legs as his fingers splayed across her stomach. The other didn't even bother to attempt at fondling Gaara, he simply began to remove his belt. The red head burst into a fit of laughter at their antics, and all three men halted in their tracks.

* * *

**End Scene Description **

* * *

That was most definitely not a female's laugh. 

They stared at her as she continued chuckling manically, and on queue the front door slammed open. Gaara followed their stunned vision and his stomach twisted warmly. Ah, there was his lovable hero.

Naruto's blond hair swirled wildly in the air as his chakra swarmed his body, those perfect blue eyes narrowed into dangerous slits. The man on top of Gaara's waist swore angrily as a poof of smoke enveloped the two for a moment, and he glanced down to find a red headed man underneath him.

"It's the god damn jinchuuriki!" The fat one screamed, and he was rewarded with a kunai lodged in his ribcage as the last syllable fell from his mouth.

Another malicious laugh escaped Gaara's throat as he eyed the fuming Kyuubi container at the door, and his green eyes shifted to the bastard on top of him. The raven-haired attacker's face contorted in disgust as he stared back, followed by a low growl.

"What the fuck? You disgusting demon faggot!"

Gaara chuckled again, and twitched an eyebrow.

"Oh? You were the one that jumped onto me." He reminded the man, and he was rewarded with a splash of red substance across his face. The Ichibi bellowed in his head, ecstatic as Naruto roared wildly.

The claws embedded in the man's forehead that still straddled Gaara's waist flexed thrice into the flesh and brains, before the fingers they were attached to withdrew and shoved the already dead corpse so hard it rocked Gaara's body as it left him. The body was thrown with such strength it crashed into the wall opposite of the front door, shattering the mirror mounted on the wall there.

Gaara let himself stare in fascination as the long coat hiding Naruto's body swirled at his heels, raw power rolling from the man in colossal waves. His blue eyes flashed to the fat man, the only one that seemed to have enough sense to at least pretend he could defend himself against the vicious blond in front of him.

He seemed to recognize Naruto from the bar as a flash of fear shot through his piggy eyes, and the smile that flashed across those full lips made Gaara's heart thump wildly.

"_You." _

The dirty blond's eyes widened in terror at the blood lust revealed in that single word, and he threw a shuriken he pulled out of his back pocket at Naruto with all of his might. Gaara smirked as he pulled himself up to his elbows, staring up at his companion who caught the flying metal weapon so fast it almost seemed it had never left it's owners hand.

He twirled it between his fingers, shifting his gaze to inspect it with a tilt of his head. He sneered at the flimsy metal, and moved his vision once more the trembling attacker. Gaara was going crazy in his head, because the look on Naruto's face probably would have implanted a tendril of fear in him if it had been directed towards the redhead.

Naruto's face remained towards the weapon, cocked at an angle, but those blue irises were staring back at the man standing to the side out of the upper corner of his narrowed eyes with such intensity the room seemed to crackle with heat. Long threads of sunshine yellow hair hung across his forehead, shadowing the angles of his face and shaping the sheer killing intent written across Naruto's features with such intensity it made Gaara shiver.

A strong scent assaulted both jinchuuriki's noses, and a chuckle escaped Naruto's lips in his deep voice. The bodyguard had peed his pants, and it made Gaara's head rush come to a screeching halt in disgust. He crouched upwards, and pushed himself to his feet, a cloud of smoke surrounding him as he shifted into his female form.

He loved it when Naruto went wild like this, and he was extremely smitten with the blond man standing only feet from him, but for all it was worth, Gaara was _not_ a cross dresser.

As it were, in his male form, the little blouse that scantily clad his torso in his shorter female version had stretched into a belly short across his muscular chest, and the skirt that had subtly hinted at what he hid as a female was fringing on a taught belt as a man. There was only so far the red head would take the charade, and he could not fathom the thought of sneaking back to their inn on the more cleaner side of town in a miniskirt and a shirt that only covered his top rib.

A howl split the atmosphere as Gaara watched Naruto move so fast it was only a strand of black left in his vision, and in the next instant the man that had labeled Gaara a 'good fuck' was just shy of shattering the wall with his face it was pressed so hard against the material.

"What were your words at the bar?" Naruto hissed into his ear, and Gaara cackled inwardly alongside the raccoon bastard. His sand shot out from its hiding place outside and held the third man that had chosen that moment to flee in place. It cocooned his body and muffled his shouts to a dull banging as the redhead watched his friend in fascination.

The crack of the dirty blond's nose as it smashed roughly against the wall sent a spray of crimson liquid across it's length, and a shriek unbefitting anything with testicles escaped his pudgy mouth.

"Fuck you demon! You and your little sex-changing boyfriend over there won't get what your after!" He screamed, and Naruto's wild laugh floated over Gaara's skin like a drug.

"Oh, me and my sex changing boyfriend have gotten what we came for, but I want something a little stronger." He purred into the thickened ear, and Gaara raised an eyebrow in fascination. Oh this was getting good. Naruto was beyond angry; he was physically trembling as the neck his left hand was latched onto was forcefully shoved flush to the wall.

The girth of the man ensured this was a painful acrobatic feat he would not normally accomplish without an enraged demon container at his back. He screamed again, and Naruto's chuckle joined his cry. "All we needed was his name." He whispered into the man's ear, and the bodyguard's beady eyes shot open.

He screamed as Naruto's fingers clenched into a fist, and slammed into his spine with such force it shattered the bone all the disks holding his spine together in Naruto's path. If Gaara was actually female, and not _the _Sabaku no Gaara, or a jinchuuriki…or just in general, not Gaara, he might have fainted from the overwhelming surge of warmth that stormed through his head at the lengths Naruto would go to ensure bastards like these three men got what they deserved for touching him.

A tan fist curled back, prepared to strike again as the man shirked, blood splashing the cracked wall he was pressed against as he coughed and cried aloud.

"What do you want? I'll tell you where he is staying!"

Naruto chuckled, "Spill it." He whispered, his breath ghosting over the man's ear. Gaara took a mental note of the address, jotting it down somewhere in his head to scout out the location and see if it was genuine or not.

His gaze focused on the clenched fist as it withdrew farther still, and Naruto's pink lips curled back in the foxiest smirk Gaara had ever seen on those features. It wasn't a shatter that assaulted his eardrums, nor was it a scream. As Naruto's fist literally drove through the man's meaty back, drilling a path that cut his spinal cord in two, and hurtled through the ribcage and into the drywall on the other side, the only sound was a squeak.

The fleshy hands twitched violently for a moment before falling lax, the corpse falling from Naruto's arm and sagging to the floor with a gaping hole the size of Gaara's head through it.

Their eyes locked for a brief moment and the butterflies in the red heads stomach were suddenly released with all of the fury their little wings could muster. Naruto's gaze had flickered crimson in that split second they had eye contact, and he knew the blond would rage for days after this incident.

The sand that captured the man that had seen it proper to remove his belt in the assault on Gaara fell away, leaving him to tremble visibly, his eyes crossing as Naruto stormed up to him, their noses a breaths distance apart.

"You deserve much worse then your fate tonight." He hissed, and his hands crossed in front of him, claws slashing through flesh. The brown eyes of the last attacker opened wide, and the body fell to the floor, followed seconds later by what remained of his throat.

Blood splattered Naruto's face and hands, and he whirled angrily. Gaara only blinked as the blond rounded on him, and his body tensed as the Kyuubi's chakra flared in front of his face.

"Don't you _ever _take it that far again." The blond man hissed dangerously, and Gaara's green eyes narrowed just as powerfully. "I am not a little girl, Uzumaki. I could have had the same results with a lot less mess to clean up." He sneered back, but Naruto had not spoken the words he really wanted to.

His hands shot out and ensnared Gaara's waist, dragging her close. "What if we run into someone that's actually skilled Gaara? I'll go crazy if you leave me alone." He whispered, and the purple-rimmed eyes closed slowly as she inhaled his scent. Seven years of forced companionship had also instilled upon the redhead that Naruto needed to touch people from time to time.

They often slept curled against one another as nightmare after nightmare wrecked havoc on their young minds the months after the destruction of their homes, and the habit persisted through the years. The embrace between them might have seemed to be a romantic intimacy to anyone witnessing it, but it was in fact much more. That was part of the reason Gaara was so morbidly scared of admitting the feelings he held for Naruto.

They had something between them that surpassed any story he'd ever heard, and he did not want the urges to kick the living shit out of the bastards that touched _his_ Naruto and take their spot to push him away. They needed one another on such a primitive level it was folly to think he could survive without the blond anymore.

They were the survivors of Akatsuki, the only two survivors. They had spent seven long, extremely hard years surviving the rest of the world, relying on their own young minds and the half learned lessons of a shinobi, and ultimately, on one another to get through it. Many times during the third and fourth year both boys had turned away from the other, trying their hardest to escape the reality they lived in, but always they turned back before the damage became irreparable.

Only within the last few years had their relationship taken on an entirely new perspective, one that neither one could have ether fathomed. They were so in sync with one another that they fought and lived like a single unit. Their battles consisted of Naruto's melee tactics so close to Gaara's lethal sand that they actually moved with one another. As Naruto's fists connected the sand would gather behind the opponent and slam them back against the tan knuckles that were held out for the split second, because they knew what the other was thinking.

A spiraling Rasengan often flew by Gaara's ear so close it grew red from the chakra spikes, but he would continue moving and throwing his arms around in the air as his sand danced in glorious battle, because Naruto knew if he was moving to the left or right as soon as Gaara did.

It was unexplainable what had occurred between them, but it left them in the position they were currently wrapped in. Naruto's arms circled around her shoulders and waist, and her hands pressed against his chest as his cheek nuzzled the top of her considerably shorter head. Gaara cherished the moments like this between them, though openly he only accepted them as something Naruto needed.

Naruto on the other hand, had failed to care either way if Gaara wanted to be held or not. He was the only person in Naruto's world left, which meant he was going to be hugged whenever the hell Naruto felt like hugging him. That meant Gaara was going to wake up in the morning with a mop of blond hair sticking out in all directions pressed against his chest whether he wanted to or not.

Most of all, that meant Naruto loved him, whether Gaara wanted him to or not. Like his companion however, the ex-Konoha shinobi kept that information to himself. After all, they did what most couples usually do, except kiss and make the red head cry out his name in a moment of passion.

That last one was really tempting sometimes to the blond, but he always sucked it up and contended himself with simply snuggled up against the pale man. He daydreamed more and more of kissing Gaara, but that too was squashed down in favor of something he already had. Neither of them could indulge in truly letting go of the past just yet, and neither wished to.

Coddling one another in lovers words would imply they were ready to move on, and that was simply not going to happen until the Akatsuki took a shuriken in it's jugular vein and the two men watched it bleed out. Revenge was what kept them alive in the first years, and it had morphed them into beautiful killing machines that danced together on the edge of a knife named sanity.

Naruto's innocence had long ago died away, Gaara's conscious he'd accumulated after the Chuunin exams and taken his station as Kazekage had all but melted away, he only had room to give a shit about one person in his life now. Granted both men only found the most detestable inflictions of the human race in their eyes now, simply because they were tracking the god forsaken_leader_ of said parasites.

It wasn't as if the whole world had suddenly gone to hell and moped about raping and pillaging like fetid zombies, these were simply the assholes they had to deal with to get what they wanted.

The warmth between them was gentle and assuring, and Gaara felt Naruto break away from it first. His right hand stayed around her waist as he began to walk towards the door, sparing the corpses not a second glance. They sauntered back into the still thickly jammed part of town, crossing the division between the trashy side of town to the decent living.

Neither of them were willing to give in, unstable and wrathful to a fault as years of oppression and solitude from the world took a hold of their once young minds, so what little solace that was ever offered was generally sucked up until it was dry with both men. So as they walked, Gaara did not pull away from Naruto's touch, and the blond pointedly kept Gaara in front of him, shielding her from probing eyes.

They entered the inn they'd registered in previously that day, and quietly headed towards the back where their room was located. As per their normal routine, Naruto dropped the thick black trench coat with a tired sigh as soon as the door was closed, wriggling his rippling muscle of abdomen and arms from the thin shirt he wore beneath. His black slacked remained on his hips whilst Gaara yanked a loose crimson pair of pants from the supplied dresser drawer.

She slipped them on beneath her skirt, and stepped out of the thin material that served as her skirt for that night. The black blouse was yanked over her head soon after, Naruto catching a split second of lusciously pale and perfectly rounded breasts as they tumbled from the shirts grip.

A cloud of smoke enveloped Gaara, once it cleared the model perfect jutsu's female version of Gaara was replaced by the model perfect real redhead. Naruto breathed heavily as he sank into the bed closest to the door, his long legs bending up to his chest as his stomach curled forward, head coming to land heavily in his hands.

If he wasn't careful Gaara would eventually figure out what was truly behind his tirades, and that scared the blond man to such an extent it nearly drove him insane. Regardless of what happened, Naruto could _not_ lose Gaara. He stood listlessly as a hand tugged on his wrist, and they gathered towels and rags to bathe.

That was another habit they had developed whilst together and their lives so immediately in danger. Anyone looking in might have seen it as a request for steamy bathroom sex, but it was a little more mundane, and far spookier then that. Three months into their 'new lives' a pack of missing nin had stumbled upon Naruto bathing in a stream, Gaara out collecting information.

Needless to say the blond was not a small child, and he'd murdered all of the attacking ninja with such a ferocity it had left him sick to his stomach afterwards. His point had been made, he could take care of himself, but the shuriken sticking out of his shoulder blade had slammed Gaara in the face with a single, extremely forceful thought.

Neither one of them were immortal, and with so much hanging in between them and the precocious balance of a decisive kill versus an uncontrollable demon container, their still fragile minds only held fast to reality because the other was present. If Naruto had been killed while he was away shoving tendrils of sand down some body's throat to find out where Akatsuki was, Gaara had come to the immediate conclusion that he'd have found a way to override the sand and end his own life shortly after the discovery was made.

After that particular incident, a silent agreement had been made. They never left each others side, so while the water reached a warm temperature and Gaara slipped out of his pants and into the steaming stream, Naruto settled on the counter and played with a kunai. The metal blade whistled as he spun it around his finger forcefully, sneering as it twirled wildly and wobbled dangerously on the edge of his finger.

Years of being on the run also ensured they never stayed anywhere long, so less then five minutes later Gaara was out with a towel around his waist whilst Naruto flexed his toes beneath the showerheads warmth, washing the blood that was not his own staining his face and hands down the drain.

As he exited the bathtub, he found Gaara leaning against the counter, staring at the door as if he expected it to be thrown open and all ten Akatsuki waiting on them. His red slacks were back around his hips, crimson tendrils of hair releasing little streams of water down his cheeks as he waited for Naruto to dress.

They never had time to dry in the wilderness, and neither found a reason to change the habit now. The black pants he'd previously worn slid up his knees and settles around his own waist, as one they stepped forward, pausing in their respective positions to leave the bathroom and step out into the room.

The last noticeably telltale sign from years living in danger of losing the only thing that kept them going made it's presence known as both men skipped the second bed, leaving it's blanket's tidy and in place as they both sank into the first one. Gaara settled his back against the wall, lifting his hand as Naruto's head found it's way into his lap, and laying it gently back down across the broad expanse between the blonde's shoulder blades.

Naruto snuggled closer, breathing in Gaara's scent as his cheek pressed against the taunt stomach, his breath tickling the red head's belly button. He was asleep within moments, lost in troubled dreams but dreaming nonetheless, because under the insomnia plagued red head's watchful gaze, he knew he was safe.

* * *

A/N: Good lord this chapter fought tooth and nail to come out. X.x

I had to keep going back and editing out things that weren't necessary, such as more detailed parts of Gaara learning the almighty sexy technique. Anyhow, that being said if enough people are interested I'll write a spin off one or two shot describing that ordeal more in depth. If your interested please let me know via review or PM.


	4. Our Inner Demons Song

**Dying a Shinobi Death**

Disclaimer: This story was not written for profit or fame, merely a tool to release some stress. Entirely fan made, it is in no way associated with the manga, anime, or production companies.

* * *

_They are the strong, they'll survive_  
_ The wild and the young, they've got to be free  
The sun never sets, for souls on the run_  
_They are not wrong, they're alive_

_- Quiet Riot // The Wild and the Young_

**Chapter Four: Our Inner Demons Song**

His eyes cracked open well before the sun rose above the horizon outside, and his early awakening was rewarded with a still fighting the temptation to sleep Gaara. Naruto smiled into his belly, gleeful inwardly that he'd somehow managed to roll himself over one of Gaara's stretched out legs, settling firmly between the two long limbs during the night. He'd also twisted so that it was his torso pressing against the red head's groin and stomach, giving Naruto a powerful sensation of skin on skin.

He nuzzled closer to Gaara, feigning half wakefulness as his hands dug beneath the curved pale back as it rested against the headboard, tightly clasping the tan fingers together behind Gaara's back. At his movement the shorter man jolted in surprise at the touch, but remained relatively still. He had experience in expecting Naruto to leap from his bed prepared for the day, Gaara knew well to leave the blond alone until he felt it necessary to move of his own accord.

It was rather tempting however, to chuck him off of the springy bed they relaxed upon for pressing so deliciously close to the redhead. Sometimes Gaara could swear that Naruto did these things on purpose, just to see how great his self control was, because even if one were heterosexual, it was rather difficult to keep arousal down with a warm body that continuously moved pressing against one's nether regions. Gaara was in fact, _not_ heterosexual.

He smiled down at the baby soft mop of blond hair atop his stomach nonetheless, going back to reading the directory he'd picked out of the nightstand with his sand during the night. He was hunting for 'Maruyama', and as could be expected there were nearly three pages listed under the name for local residents.

He'd written them all down on a sheet of paper supplied to the inn's residence for whatever they might need it for, carefully picking through the addresses that were likely candidates and those that were obviously so far off track he doubted such a rich man would even spare a glance down those particular neighborhoods.

The list reduced to a third it's former size, Gaara had then gone through the painstaking task of searching through the listed businesses, and had found three which rank of partnership or flat our indulgence in political power.

The first was a restaurant, guaranteeing its patrons private rooms at all hours of the night, security in the form of guards and walls too thick to hear through. Obviously it was an upscale meeting ground for the rich and powerful, by now they had learned those that had power liked to flaunt it. That was their first scouting assignment.

The second on the list was an international shinobi weapon crafting organization, privately owned and operated that just happened to have their headquarters in the town they were currently resting in. The second thing the two men had learned as time progressed and their search for Akatsuki lengthened was that those whose names were whispered in fear gave a reason to fear them. 'Privately owned and operated' sent off warning bells in Gaara's head, it implied that the company in question might not just be manufacturing standard shuriken and kunai.

The final business was a quaint bathhouse positioned at the outskirts of the city, guarded and gated so that only the most beautiful and rich could relax in it's waters. They also offered massage services and meals. On a relative scale a bath house would not seem the order of operations to find a man like they were hunting for, but it screamed at Gaara as the ink describing it glistened darkly in the soft light cast from a lamp on the wall. The powerful like to flaunt it, the dangerous loved to prove they were so, but a truly successful criminal knew how to do both, and keep it under wraps. Quite frankly, a bathhouse would not attract people from far and wide as the ad suggested if it were only massages and a meal.

Those tasks completed, he'd waited for Naruto to rise. His green eyes washed over the paper in his hand once more, they had many addresses to scour, but the business details narrowed it down even farther into those three distinct districts of the town. For no matter how crafty or manipulative a man like this was, all of them held one thing in common. They had grown accustomed to being pampered, and thus, they would not live on the other side of town from their respective 'businesses' for the sake of discreetness.

His hands flew across the paper, deftly crossing out more listings of the street addresses clearly in the wrong zones. As he worked Naruto writhed against his hips, muttering about Gaara's inability to hold still long enough for him to sleep in. The red head smirked at him, nudging Naruto's ribcage gently with his knee to scoot him away.

A loud and rather wide yawn met him as the tan ninja pushed himself onto his hands and knees, scooting back and allowing Gaara to close his now asleep legs. Without speaking the list was handed to Naruto, Gaara watching his blue eyes skid down the list. In silence they slipped off of the bed simultaneously, Naruto heading towards the wooden dresser while Gaara gently folded the paper and tucked it into his pockets.

He glanced up in time to catch Naruto's sharply angled face and masculine muscles disappear in a cloud of smoke, and tug on the same outfit Gaara had gone in the previous day. She played with her long blond pigtails, twirling them around slim fingers as she glanced over her shoulder at Gaara.

A wicked grin skipped across her lips, "Does this skirt make my butt look big?" She asked, blue eyes twirling in devious pranks. The red head snorted and simply to amuse his companion, nodded frantically.

"I am afraid no one can wear that particular outfit quite like I can." He said simply, suppressing a smile that Naruto's glowering face provoked. His hands wrenched a black shirt over his shoulders and down his midriff; missing azure eyes slide down with the material.

He gathered Naruto's normal clothing into a small pile and stuffed them into his backpack. His weapon belt slid around his hips, locking into place with a faint clasp, and the sand that had previously been lurking about the door step in case of an attack formed into it's usual appearance for the past four years.

A dog.

No one seemed to pay enough attention yet to realize that the scrawny mutt at Gaara's heels had pieces of it's 'flesh' falling off of it as it moved, but for that he was thankful. It had taken him sometime to will the sand into believable actions, even going so far as to make it shoot a thin stream of granules on a stationary object if he was standing still. They could spare no details in their current hunted stature, and the less attention they received was only a blessing in disguise.

The golden pooch made of sand squatted at his heels, blinking once as it ran towards the door, Gaara and the feminine Naruto right behind it. As they stepped out into the darkened morning hours, Naruto's arms wrapped around his pale arm, leaning against him heavily as she dropped into the overly feminine stance.

She walked in a ridiculously straight line, her feet did not land ahead of one another and a foot apart, instead once could draw a perfectly vertical angle from one footprint to another. The effect of such a walk made her backside noticeable even to the most oblivious, and it was quite effective at drawing the attention of the scum bugs they were usually after.

Gaara slipped into his role as the protective male, flinging the travel bag over his shoulder as they walked into the inn's office. A scrawny man answered their call, accepting payment for their night's stay and staring wide-eyed at Naruto. He winked at her as she smiled and turned, still attached to Gaara's arm upon leaving.

They walked quietly for a while; occasionally glancing down at the paper Gaara would draw from his pocket whenever they neared the next destination. At sun up they had not found anything that was suspicious, and so they resorted to plan B.

That was the businesses themselves. It was far more dangerous then wandering around town and glancing at houses as they passed them by, but it seemed the only plausible way to scout anything out with some results. The first was the restaurant, after one look at Naruto's revealing skin and Gaara's dark rimmed eyes they were turned away.

That most certainly ruled out the restaurant, had it been run by thugs the trashy outfit skimming his companions skin would have allowed them easy access. They crossed the streets until the looming building of the bathhouse came into sight, and as a precaution Gaara side stepped into an alley, Naruto not far behind.

His hands came together as a cloud of smoke enveloped him and, as Naruto had come to affectionately call his female side, ''Ara-Chan' appeared. The previously loose black shirt stretched as breasts filled out the space, and his crimson sweatpants clung to thick hips.

Naruto giggled sweetly, clutching tighter to the thinner bicep and slipping easier against the now soft curves. Gaara quirked an eyebrow at the blond but did little else towards her, settling instead on adjusting her attire to more suitably fit her now female figure. A corner of the shirt found itself tucked within the band of her pants along her waist, offering a slight view of her waist and hiding away the rest.

As she worked on making her clothing more appealing, Naruto took a step away and inspected her with a trained eye. She smiled endearingly at the redhead, before stepping closer and flicking a loose crimson tendril of hair down across its owner's forehead, the strand casting a vague shadow across the ai tattoo.

"'Ara-Chan!" She whined, yanking the sleeves that hung close to Gaara's elbows upwards with a huff, twisting them against the fabric until the redhead wore a tank top that picked her breasts up even more. The action also caused the hem of the black shirt to rise up, revealing a thin stretch of pale skin.

Gaara merely snickered as Naruto's tan fingers slipped around her waistband, rolling it under once to give the appearance of flawless comfort mingled interchangeably with flawless beauty. Six and a half years of something just shy of cross-dressing taught the blond what attracted the eye, after all.

Tan hands wound around a pale arm once more as they stepped out from the alley corridor, glancing left and right to see if anyone was still around that may have watched them turn in. After all, walking in with a blond girl and a red headed man, and then leaving with a blond girl and a red headed girl might bamboozle the mind, or god forbid, alert a ninja that something was amiss.

Finding the coast clear, both women changed their walking style to incorporate an enticing swing of their hips, Naruto's long blond pigtails bouncing lively as she walked.

Gaara's sand jogged along, and just before they reached the front door, the redhead reached down to scoop it up in her arms.

Two men stood at the door, standing erect and proud as they glanced at the two young women heading their way. A flash of interest swam across the left guards face, but he was young, perhaps in his late teenage years so it could not be classified as much. The man to the right however, appeared to be approaching his forties if not already into them. The sparkle of lust in his face sent off the first bell in both women.

The older guard held the door open for them, smiling and watching their backsides with luster as they stepped from the heat and into a wonderfully cool room. A young girl with porcelain skin and beautiful eyes greeted them, smiling faintly as she eyed the freckles sprinkling Naruto's nose and cheeks with an attempt to hide her sneer. Her eyes drifted over Gaara, and sparkled instantly.

She was flawless, and though it had apparently been deemed suitable to the red head in front of her to ink her skin, the tattoo strangely suited the girl. She bowed slightly towards Naruto, the curve of her spine deepening as she twisted towards Gaara, before nearly blinding them with her professional sales woman smile.

"Good afternoon ladies, welcome to 'Heaven'. Did you have an appointment or can I assist you with setting one up?" She asked brightly, and Gaara's eyes narrowed.

This woman was not a civilian. As she welcomed them her back remained rigidly straight, and though the movement was miniscule, Gaara's green eyes could detect the barest of movement in her pupils at every movement Naruto made at his side.

It looked as if they had reached their destination.

The blond girl squeaked loudly and dashed forward, pretending to be ignorant as their greeter's hand shot out to incapacitate the fast approaching blond. She withdrew the hand as a look of surprise shot across Naruto's features, and she fell to the floor with a mighty whack, her feet still tangled around one another.

Most certainly, they had stumbled upon something of interest.

Gaara slipped into Naruto's ploy seamlessly, rushing forward to help her friend. Naruto's shoulder shook violently as a splash of liquid rebounded off of the floor. The woman was startled beyond words, and merely watched as the beautiful redhead picked the sobbing pigtailed from the floor.

"Are you ok, Nunu?" Gaara whispered in a hushed tone, their eyes communicating information far from the topic of Naruto's forced tears. The small girl nodded, whimpering. "I'm ok 'Ara-Chan. Thanks." She sobbed, and in the blink of an eye she was gone.

The woman had let her guard drop as she watched with a faint disgust at the sweet interaction between her two customers, and was thus rendered embarrassingly trapped in a pair of strong arms. There was no way that little blond twit was this strong, or that fast.

Naruto sneered into her ear, and with a wrench backwards the clerk fell to the tiled flooring. "Dammit." The blond hissed, glaring at the fallen ninja.

"Just 'cause I got freckles don't mean ya gotta be so rude!" She spat, and Gaara snickered inwardly. She was already on his knees, hands rummaging through pockets of the woman's clothing and purse. To no one's surprise several weapons clattered against the hard flooring, a little black book with only the front most page written upon, and a small handbag.

Naruto snatched up the bag whilst Gaara inspected the message written in the book. It was obviously well used, and he noticed with a prick of suspicion that tens upon tens of pages had been ripped away, leaving only the most recent entry available for study.

_Noaairms Ayarmuam_

_Arrival X 2_

Cell 12B 

Gaara blinked once, his mind already working to decipher what the initial collaboration of jumbled letters meant. The rest was obviously something important, enough to keep locked up anyhow. He tossed the paper to Naruto, his mind still working furiously as he peeked within the bag and snatched away the billfold.

It wasn't like they slept and ate from thin air, and the constant requirement to move gave them no option to work for their stay. It had taken Gaara several months to grow accustomed to the practice of stealing, he'd been the Kazekage after all and it never sat well with the red head. The taking of someone else's hard earned money had left him feeling awkward for ages, but he'd eventually over rode the feeling, satisfying himself with the notion that they were stealing from other criminals themselves.

The woman sprawled across the floor unconsciously obviously had her nose dipped into something a little darker then steamy waters, so it did little to faze Gaara as she emptied the rather fat purse into the backpack she carried and tossed the deflated sack at the woman's body.

Naruto's eyes were glaring at the paper, and Gaara was startled to hear a hushed whoop from her lips. The piece of paper was thrust into pale hands as a fingernail surrounded by tan skin gently prodded at kanji.

"Maruyama." She whispered excitedly, and Gaara's green eyes widened a fraction as he nodded mutely. Indeed, the incoherent scribbling of slashes spelled out the leaders name, scrambled to throw anyone unknowing off track.

His eyes roamed over the first portion, and Naruto shrugged as it to blatantly say she had no idea what that one meant. Gaara mulled it over as she chewed on her bottom lip, before an idea sprang to mind.

She withdrew the slip of paper the addresses were listed upon, and cross referenced the names as Naruto drug the clerk out of the center of the room and away. She nearly missed the faint hiss as the blond dropped her ungraciously upon the floor beneath her desk with a dull thud, a smile creeping across the redhead's lips.

Her pale fingers slid down the paper, frantically searching for names that fit. She found one.

"Masanori Maruyama." Her breath came out in a triumphant grin, and Naruto punched the air with a silly grin on her lips. They were that much closer to reaching Akatsuki. The two women glanced around at the doors around them, feeling quite adventurous after making the discovery they so desperately needed to get out of the information rut they were in.

Three doors were open to them, one the restrooms, a second seemed to be the bath itself, and the third marked for employees only. It took them half a second to glance at one another and shoot off towards the third option. The white door pushed open without sand, and they were greeted with a normal stock room.

Its shelves were lined with white towels and linens of all sizes, farther down the food supply to adhere to they're offered meal services. Gaara slipped further in whilst Naruto hunted high and low for something of interest. Nothing noticeably appeared until Gaara pried open the office door near the back, and had it not been for her now activated sand shield she might have been decapitated by the complex trap her wrench upon the door had released.

Naruto was at her side in an instant, weapon drawn and glaring heatedly at the empty office. She stepped in front of Gaara much to the red heads annoyance, though she enjoyed seeing the blond play the hero, it enraged her to have to let him plunge into the danger at hand first.

Because really, she was a he after all, it wasn't like she was actually a helpless female with no training in defense or offense whatsoever.

Her hands slammed together to prove the point, and Gaara's muscular body slipped into view as the small burst of cloud disappeared. Naruto glanced over her shoulder at the noise, but otherwise remained in front. She poked at the computer lying on a messy desk, papers scattered everywhere while a fan gently blew at their edges and threatened to create an even bigger mess then was already at hand.

It was Gaara that stepped on the floor tiling that rang differently then the others as his weight pressed down on it, and both of the room's inhabitants backed off and at the ready of a second trap. Finding nothing to spring up and attempt to kill them, they fell to a squat and inspected the floor.

Only to a trained eye could one detect the tiniest bit of difference in the material the floor was made out of, and the different construction that made what appeared to be a small trap door in the ground. Naruto's fingers slid across the ceramic piece, prying at its edges as she studied it. It wasn't until her palm was pressed against the center of the piece that her hand withdrew quickly, and she fell back with a pained cry.

Gaara's eyes snapped around to find the bastard that had attacked his companion, but he could visibly see nothing. Glancing up at Naruto, he found blue eyes staring at her own hand in wonder, the sizable hole in the flesh already closing as the Kyuubi fought to heal its container.

Naruto's breath ghosted out in a faint whisper, "Gaara, there's a god damn demon seal on this thing." She hissed, and his green eyes narrowed dangerously. That was strike two.

The bodyguard they'd disposed of the night before had screamed as Naruto invaded the room,_"It's the god damn jinchuuriki!" _Now they were staring at something that was obviously meant to keep them away. Why oh why did it feel like they were walking into a trap knowing that they were doing so?

While he studied the seemingly innocent appearing flooring, Naruto continued to try and dig the edges up, but to no avail. She finally exhaled harshly in irritation and Gaara found himself staring back at a skirt-clad male. Naruto ripped the impossibly small shirt off of his exceedingly broad back, glaring daggers at the shredded material.

The redhead suppressed a chuckle as Naruto leaned forward, his hips obviously squeezed together painfully in such a little skirt. Feeling the tiniest bit resentful of the fact that he could not leave the blond to parade about in the scant material no matter how much he wanted to, Gaara threw the backpack containing Naruto's clothing at the blond, who seized it out of the air and rummaged through it.

While the blond dressed Gaara conversed with the Ichibi in his head. It seemed they had reached a dead end until the demon gave him an idea. The little dog comprising of his chakra imbued sand dispersed, and the miniscule grains of sand slipped across the floor.

Four eyes watched the tendrils lazily arrive at the trap door, and disappear beneath its crevice. Naruto whooped as he sunk next to Gaara, only having found time to jerk his pants on before the discovery was made that the seal did not react to Gaara's sand.

The redhead grunted in frustration for a few moments that he could not fling the door open; it was simply bound too heavily by some sort of mechanism. Instead he opted for the second option, and that was to sit cross legged on the floor, close his right eye, and whisper quietly, _"Daisan no Me."_

Naruto set breathlessly beside him as Gaara instated the connection to his physical optical nerve to that of his chakra's, and sent his third eye down the steps the door led into. He found himself staring down a dimly let hall, and metallic door after metallic door rowed the wall.

With a glint in his eye he sent his eye forward, looking about as shadows flickered. For the most part the cells were empty, though the splashes of long ago dried blood stained everything grotesquely brown. He stumbled across the decomposing body of some poor soul before going onwards, and only the faintest tilt of his head suggested to Naruto that he'd found something that was worth his interest.

The blond slid closer as if he could see through Gaara's ear what was catching his companion's attention, whilst the redhead edged his eye forward. The kanji were half rubbed away from years of abuse, but he could clearly tell that it was the 12B cited in the small note they'd taken from the book.

Inside the barred cell he found himself staring at two bodies, though both seemed to be alive to an extent. Two figures, one male and one female, lay parallel to one another, their eyes half lidded. Though they were obviously half starved and it appeared to be, heavily sedated, both of them jerked violently as his chakra signature approached.

The bigger of the two sat upright, glaring into empty space as something deadly pinged off of his mental boundaries. His lips drug across one another sluggishly, but the nature of his meaning rang across clear to Gaara by his physical movements. The man was obviously aware that something was close to him, and though he could not see it, a feral snarl slinked across his mouth.

The woman took that time to also lift herself from the dust encrusted floor, her eyes swimming in confusion and a dazed look only befitting one under the influence of powerful drugs. She reached out weakly, his fingers trembling as pale fingers slid towards Gaara's staring eye.

The red head visibly jerked against Naruto as a spike of chakra engulfed the lower floor, and Naruto jumped to his feet with a kunai at the ready.

"Gaara?" He whispered, a gentle nudge of anxiety filing through his lower regions as the redhead retracted his eye and stared at the floor as if it had suddenly pronounced itself angry for placing his rear atop it.

"Naruto." Gaara whispered, still gazing wide eyed at the trap door. "Naruto, there are jinchuuriki below us." He whispered, and blue eyes flashed wildly as Kyuubi's suspicion was confirmed.

"What the hell?" He shrieked, dropping to his knees and ripping frantically at the tile with renewed vigor. Gaara shook his head and pulled the ravaging man away, his normally green eyes overlapped with a black film and a golden diamond overtaking his pupils.

Naruto backed away instantly at the rage expressed on the shorter man's face, asking only with his eyes if he should release the Kyuubi. Gaara did not give him an answer; instead he set grain after grain into the floor, reestablishing his third eye as tendrils of sand accompanied the floating membrane.

"Be on your guard. Though they are heavily sedated my presence was known to them, and the larger seems vicious." That was the only warning Naruto received as Gaara plunged the last of his sand into the small cracks around the door, and wandered back into the hall.

By the time his eye and wave of sand reached the cell both of its occupants were on their feet, swaying wildly but still alert. They stared at the beige material before the larger of the two captives stepped into the light, growling in his throat. As a weak ray of light fell across his features, Gaara mentally took note of his characteristics.

He reminded the redhead strongly of the Konoha ninja clan, the dog lovers. Fangs openly protruded from thin lips, curling back against his flesh as he snarled at the quivering pile of sand just out of his reach. Unlike Naruto and Gaara however, this vessels most prominent feature invoked by the demon he withheld was not on his face, but rather, his ears.

A wild mane of nearly iridescent white hair fell gracefully across his broad shoulders, and spiraled down his backside. On his face two eyes slanted dangerously back at the pile of sand, his sole blue eye glaring while it's opposite black iris visibly emitted anger.

At the side of his face his ears curved into faint points the pulled back in an obvious sign of aggression, and several metallic hoops stuck fast to the flesh. The jinchuuriki howled angrily as the sand began to lift from the floor, whilst upstairs it's master whispered quietly to Naruto.

"_Gobi no Houkou."_

Naruto nearly crashed into the floor at the name, his jaw locking in place as the fox roared wildly within his conscious. The Kyuubi obviously had a past with this demon, because it jeered and taunted wildly at the 'little pup' they had stumbled across. Blue eyes flashed behind tan lids for a split second before he settled down near the redhead again, anxiously awaiting the identification of the second demon container.

It did not take Gaara long to figure it out, because as Naruto struggled to right himself and absorb the classification of the five tailed wolf, he'd contorted his sand into the shape of a hand.

One finger protruded, pointing at the smaller figure before it bent at the knuckle and beckoned she too, into the light. The wolf man howled angrily, but he allowed the woman to step forward.

Shukaku hissed within his mind, but Gaara merely squashed him away as he studied her. The raccoon spit out a name as his sand eye slowly roved over her features, noting for the first time that she did not have by any means, normal eyes.

While the dog aside her had one blue and one black iris, the woman's eyes were…well, a rainbow. Her left eye began with violent and ended in red, every shade in between consuming her gaze. The right started with green at the top, and ceased near the bottom in. strangely enough, yellow. It hit him exactly what that meant, even if he did not have an angry demon roaring angrily.

She was the Yonbi no Sokou, the Cockatrice container. Her elaborately colored eyes were not the only part of her body that shimmered in the light in a slew of color; down her back a single, thick ponytail periodically clamped together with hair bands nearly blinded him at it's range of tones.

With even the slightest of movements that color flashed in the deadened light, and Gaara was struck with a very hard thrash of the Shukaku. The redhead whispered her identity to Naruto, who only nodded. Kyuubi seemed to be spilling the information just from their steadily waxing chakra signatures who they jinchuuriki were, coupled with sneers from the haughty fox about the times of old when they had attempted to defeat him.

Gaara twisted on the floor, trying to figure out how to best approach them. He opted with the easiest, and that was maneuvering his sand across the floor into several kanji. His third eye watched them unblinkingly as their eyes slowly roamed over the simple message, both sets widening.

He sneered, of course they knew who '_Sabaku no Gaara'_ was. That snide comment seemed to appease the Shukaku's temperament within his head as Gaara drew the sand clean, and set out the next step.

They're reaction to_'Naruto Uzumaki' _were as to be expected, blank. A sigh of defeat flittered between Gaara's lips as he rewrote his message, and watched with amusement as both of their faces contorted in indignation at the title shimmering in beige across the floor.

"_Kyuubi no Yoko."_

The wolf boy slammed his fist against the bars containing him, falling backwards as a bright light filtered through the room for the briefest of instants, and Gaara could not help but chuckle at the jinchuuriki's stupidity. One last time he moved the sand, this time directed at the female who only watched with a bored expression on her beautiful but still languid features as the wolf roused himself from the jolt.

'_Why?'_

She seemed to be at a loss as how to answer Gaara, but she also seemed to understand that he could somehow see them because he answered within the appropriate timeframe for a response. Her lips carefully and slowly formed words, and the redhead stared intently.

He made out four words before the sand exploded in an angry buzz, knocking the girl backwards and throwing the wolf man back once more.

"Maruyama trading Akatsuki. Something about a 'ni'." He hissed angrily, his third eye vanishing as Naruto's blue eyes immediately spiraled out of control and a powerful blast of Kyuubi's chakra enveloped the room. Gaara agreed whole-heartedly with his companion, smiling faintly as a faint nudge of foreign but obviously demonic chakra reacted to Naruto's outburst.

They didn't even bother with a disguise, as they walked out of the building, Uzumaki now dressed in his signature trench coat, both guards were slaughtered with the flick of a shuriken wielding wrist, and a tap of a long, pale finger.

They fled through the streets, glancing down at the paper that held the address of the man they had identified as the bastard behind the operations going on beneath the bathhouse. As they ran Gaara in particular plunged head first into a torrent of hatred and anger that merited a continuous change in his pupils. He snarled openly into the daylight, at that point he did not particularly care if the prisoners were possibly bloodthirsty jinchuuriki, probably sedated for a reason.

Gaara would be damned, once more; if he allowed anyone to hurl another soul into the depths of his own sorrows and agony he'd endured for the greater part of his life. His chakra flared wildly and out of control as they barreled through backyards, startling the villagers that went about their daily tasks.

At his side Naruto was a streak of yellow and contrastingly black color, for the most part silent but also steadily losing himself to the rage that coursed through his veins. Both men were drilled daily on their survival instincts; neither could escape the oppressive nature of their lives on the run. Two eyes flashed interchangeably between fury-induced sparkling azure and murderous crimson. Aside him the green hue had been utterly drowned, lost behind complete black film and golden diamond, showing the world Gaara's fury.

Mutual rivers of energy streamed around the two dashing figures, and both demon vessels solidly refused to allow any one else to suffocate in the hateful grasp of neither the Akatsuki nor their plans for domination. An outright snarl filtered through someone's lips, but it was indistinguishable as to who's it emitted from.

In their heads the demons roared wildly, neither caring for the reason their containers were currently sprinting into a rush of carnage and morbid bloodshed. They were simply ecstatic at the prospect of a confrontation that would finally bring them to the surface again. The Shukaku stormed about maniacally, driving Gaara to run faster, and push more chakra to his feet, unwilling to leash his bloodlust.

Within Naruto the Kyuubi howled in a rush of excitement, already large bursts of chakra spiking from the shinobi that held him captive. The blond did not complain in the least, instead, like his companion, he simply ground his teeth together, hunched forward, dropping to all fours, and lunged forward.

The closer they got the harder they ran, and their thoughts swirled dangerously at the border of madness. Raging hatred sheathed their blood, and the dash towards the crime bosses listed address had become a race against their own minds. It'd be a miracle if they reached their destination still Naruto and Gaara, judging by the massive twin tails that were swishing in anticipation out of the blonde's backside.

A multitude of scenarios blanketed their rational minds, and the only thing that really made any sense to the demonically empowered men was the sole demand of their souls.

'_No one else. No one else will suffer.'_

Their own pasts haunted their spirits, cries made up in hundreds of nights borne from the shadows of their nightmares. They were trapped; they themselves had no way to free their own horrendously shackled souls.

Thus a solid force had been erected instantly at the discovery of two more on their way to a path of hellish destruction and binding slavery that consumed one's mind and kicked them straight off into the abyss that not even death could come to claim them. Two boys that even eternal peace could not lave its mercy upon, both of them blatantly refused to usher that_brokenness_ upon another.

'_No. One. Else.'_

Their feet lead them in front of a large mansion, heavily guarded and judging by the waves of chakra not even bothering to hide from the world, ninja that possibly outranked ANBU awaited them.

It was not the opponents that stopped Gaara and Naruto in their tracks, it was the fact that, as they ran closer, the ground was littered with bodies. They waited, side-by-side and quite still for a few moments, each straining their ears to discover the source of the disruption.

They were met with a powerful blast of chakra so closely ridden with demonic fury that it rocked them both, and the demons within them howled gloriously. How in the seven hells was this possible?

A third jinchuuriki was clearly blazing its way through the construct in front of them, and both men grinned like wild animals. Their own burdens screamed in hunger, urging them into the houses corridors and begging to take part in the obvious slaying.

A second later several distinctly different chakra signatures assaulted them, and a wicked gleam passed through their eyes. The opponents were powerful.

Gaara stepped forward, closely shadowed by Naruto, and simply walked right into the front door, eyes blazing and hell fast on their heels.

"_Get the fuck off of me!"_ A high-pitched shriek of rage met them as they crossed the threshold.

* * *

A/N: Oh the maniacal laughter, oh the insane speed of keystrokes. How I love the cinema style of ideas that pop into my head when I've stumbled across something good. 


	5. Bee Stings

**Dying a Shinobi Death**

Disclaimer: This story was not written for profit or fame, merely a tool to release some stress. Entirely fan made, it is in no way associated with the manga, anime, or production companies.

* * *

_When you're brought into this world, they say you're born in sin  
Well at least they gave me something, I didn't have to steal or have to win_

_I'm what Cain was to Abel, Mister catch me if you can No I ain't looking for forgiveness, but before I'm six foot deep_

_I've lived life to the fullest; let the boy die like a man_

_Take me now but know the truth, cause I'm going down in a blaze of glory_

_Jon Bon Jovi // Blaze of Glory_

**Chapter Five: Bee Stings**

Her shriek sent both of them spiraling wildly up the grand staircase, only taking a passive note of the sliding door opposite of them that led into a large backyard, and the glistening waters sparkling in the sunlight of an in ground pool. Naruto hunkered down to all fours once more, shooting past Gaara but closely caught up with. They followed the echoing scream farther and farther upwards, three stories above ground level.

Sandaled feet skid to a grinding halt as the body they were attached to leaned heavily to the side, straining to stop the momentum they were carried by. Neither of them paused.

A streak of blond barreled full force into the robed figure facing away from them, spikes of black hair shooting in all directions, the only identification besides the robe to give notice as to whom Naruto attacked

The snide chuckle drifting from the corner of the room jarred Gaara into a vengeful state of uncontrollable wrath, his sand dispersing immediately to shoot skyward, protecting his face from the flying weapons. Beige granules enveloped white sheets of paper carefully folded, eating the weapon of choice before crumbling to the floor, roughly dismantling the delicate but deadly origami creations.

Her laugh pissed him off to no end, and that was her one and only mistake. Gaara was driven mercilessly in the time he and Naruto spent fleeing from pursuing Akatsuki, and in turn hunting those that had killed their young minds training in all manners of fighting technique he had never seen reason to before.

One of those was melee combat.

Konan did not have time to blink her heavily lashed eyes before a pale fist shattered her cheekbone, sending her head backwards and smashing into the wall behind her with such force that the brace supporting the upper level shuddered violently. The Shukaku screamed to be released, but his bellows were drowned out by Gaara's distorted vision and hazy mind.

The sight of the black, red cloud decorated robes had driven his thought process to the deepest pits of hell, leaving only the most primitive instincts to rule him. Terrifying flashes of pale flesh pounded the only female Akatsuki member farther and farther into the wall at her back, and a splash of crimson blood clung to Gaara's shirt when she cried out.

She howled angrily, shaking her head to rid it of the spikes of pain shooting violently through her. Gaara's breath left his lungs in a fit of agony as her legs drew into her chest and ground the heels of her feet into his ribcage with a powerful kick.

He flew backwards at her jerk, sand latching onto the stair banister and encompassing his backside as he shot over the railing, and landed within the floating cocoon. Konan sneered at him, wiping the dribble of blood from her lip. She spat at the banister side, blood mingling with her saliva where it landed.

"Such impatience." She jeered at him, and Gaara lunged forward again. In his fist a kunai already glinting with blood from clinging to it so tightly flashed wildly, before it disappeared into her shoulder. Her shriek was like a soothing touch to his vision, and the redhead was able to send his sand spiraling towards her with a mighty whoosh as his hand very nearly slapped her across the face with it's wide swing.

The grains viciously attacked her ankles, skittering up her legs and around her waist as she struggled to swipe it from her body. His maddening chuckle resounded around them, and it provoked his opponent to the utmost. She snarled deeply, disappearing in a poof of smoke and leaving his sand to settle around thin air, closing in on itself. Gaara hissed openly as his ultimate defense shot up behind him.

Naruto barreled into Itachi with the fury of hell enlisted between his fingers, tightly clenched and flying towards the Uchiha betrayer with everything in his soul. Itachi grunted heavily as the blond flew into him, his jaw cracking as Naruto's fist collided with bone from behind. Rapidly his skin was dissipating as the Kyuubi was truly drawn to the surface, howling with delight in Naruto's head, and spreading into reality as its battle cry rang out through Naruto's lips.

The raven-haired man hissed angrily and sent a shattering kick at Naruto's chest, but it only served to enrage him. An onslaught of claws and fangs assaulted Itachi's torso, and immediately the body dispersed in a massive collection of ravens, making the blond see, quite literally, black.

Kyuubi overwhelmed him at that point, and he turned in all directions. A set of amused eyes bore back into his own, a roar the only response. Coherent speech was lost on the charging blond, so whatever Hidan said went unheard. A rush of wind later Naruto tackled the serial killer with a vengeance, streaks of blood splattering the wall.

A yank at his ankle sent him skidding backwards on his face, skin already raw from the demonic chakra that consumed him, Naruto screamed in pain as his flesh left his body.

Her laughter drifted over him as he swung around, and her body dispersed into a massive collection of bees. Gaara grunted as hundreds upon hundreds of the paper insects flew passed his defensive shield, stinging violently as they infiltrated his pores. Almost immediately the poison began to take effect, pumping through his wildly sloshing blood. His vision blurred at the edges, and he sneezed repeatedly.

"God dammit!" He roared as a murder of crows shot by his face, throwing him backwards against the banister in their haste to flee. Konan grinned darkly, her form reinstating as a woman while he'd tried to defend himself from Itachi's blasted clone's remains.

He sent a tendril of sand across the floor, attempting to trip the Akatsuki, but now that she was aware of his presence to the fullest she was not to be caught so close to him again. Instead his attack, wildly uncontrolled, twisted around Naruto's ankles and threw him backwards. Red hair swirled wildly as Gaara fought to maintain consciousness, his hands slamming into the ground.

Both of them yelped loudly as a wave of chakra consumed so powerfully with demonic powers it made their flesh sizzle painfully swept across the room, and both Akatsuki they fought disappeared.

Naruto roared angrily, Gaara on his heels as the blond twisted riotously and dashed up the final set of stairs. They barreled down the long hallway, the redhead nearly tripping over himself as he pushed his fading ability to balance away. He berated himself harshly, condemning his pain and weakened ability to fight for distancing himself from Naruto.

They fought in such close synchronization for so many years, but the sight of Akatsuki robes had sent them both diving for the nearest body, and in turn had caused Naruto to bleed profusely, and Gaara…

He refused to die until the organization was disbanded by total obliteration of its members.

His mental torment continued, viciously bashing himself for being so stupid and hell bent on revenge. This was how shinobi lost their lives, by losing their cool and allowing their enemies to provoke them into tactics, like leaving their other half out of the fight and getting themselves mortally injured.

He slid to a halt behind Naruto, who was still down on all fours and hissing angrily at the door. A large oak frame outfitted the picture, but it was rendered into glossy splinters as two black sandaled feet crashed into it, and the two jinchuuriki stormed in.

They stopped at only a half of a foot step in however, Gaara banging roughly against the splintered doorframe as both men were consumed by a blinding flash of light and a burning sensation that threatened to knock the redhead unconscious by his already suffering senses.

A second form of Konan, clone or otherwise, was battling it out with a rather large, and extremely pissed off two-tailed cat. The sheer size of the beast startled Naruto, enough so that his raging chakra consumption dimmed and his red eyes faded into cerulean. He glanced sidelong at Gaara, though he was in too far away to notice the hundreds of stings littering the pale face, neck, and arms exposed to Konan's initial assault.

The blue haired Akatsuki roared angrily as the pair of jinchuuriki stormed in, and she was accompanied by a mangled hiss from the cat demon itself, though it was not directed at the two men. One massive white paw shot forward, severing Konan's arm from her body, screeching out a strangely triumphant sounding 'meow'.

Naruto's eyes narrowed angrily as the arm dispersed into hundreds of tiny bees before it hit the ground, and he shot forward, red chakra enveloping his body as he ran. The demon whirled on the spot, feral sounds erupting from its jaw as it stared down the attacking blond. A wave of sand protected Naruto as it swatted at him forcefully, howling angrily that it's attack was blocked.

The chakra flaring around the tan man's hunched form served to singe Konan's fleeing weaponry, setting fire to the paper, and several hundred small insects erupted into a burst of chakra before falling to the floor in fragments of flesh.

The cat hissed dramatically as a shuriken dug into it's muscled front leg painfully, it's two tails torrentially thrashing as pain shot across it's back and sent it's two sporadically spiraling extremities in a frazzled dash of pearly white hair that stood on end.

It was by noticing this that the red head took heed of a fifth body in the room, a crouching shinobi dressed in the Whirlpool elite uniform. His heart lodged in his throat as a flash of steel sprang into his vision, and the sand around Naruto lurched him inwards as it cocooned him.

He could feel the confusion of the Kyuubi, but a clang of the thrown short sword later and Naruto tumbled out, blue eyes emerging red once more. Gaara sunk against the wall heavily, sweat pouring down his face as he watched the fox rip into the ninja, the third tail springing out from behind him as he mauled everything in his way.

The mask covering the ninja's face was thrown aside, and Naruto found himself assaulting another blond haired blue-eyed man, though the resemblance between them stopped there. His dark blue eyes were narrowed into slits as he snarled a breaths hair away from Naruto's own lips, long blond hair thrown into the air at such proximity of the power rolling off of his attacker.

His hands lunged behind him and he flipped backwards, landing on one knee as he withdrew two more short swords. Naruto swiped at him roughly, missing the dodging shinobi by a hair. "Who the hell are you?" The blond jinchuuriki spat, and he was answered with a sneer that rivaled his own.

"Maruyama." Came the short response, and realization dawned on both of them. Gaara could have kicked himself in the ass for his round about stupidity today, not only had he run in headlong and in turn rendered himself unable to fight, but he'd also completely forgot who it was they were _supposed _to be tracking.

Granted, the pissed off cat busily mauling Konan was a great distraction, he knew with a severe gravity any more mistakes could prove lethal to him or both of them. His hands came together as the sand he'd been slowly curling behind the ninja amounted to a considerable pile, and it shot out with his cry.

It encompassed the writhing shinobi, his whirlpool marked hitai-ate falling away as the sand slid up the side of his face, only leaving that portion of his body free to move. Naruto crept closer, pulling himself erect as the Kyuubi's chakra died away faintly, the third tail vanishing.

A scream shot through the air and Gaara was forced to release his hold on Maruyama and turn the sand to protect Naruto from the massive ball of fur that careened towards him. The ninja immediately shot across the room towards the red head so desperately protecting his friend, the sand locking into place a fraction of a second ahead of the cat's impact.

It bounced with a painful cry over the top of the sand ball, and slammed into the wall. The velocity coupled with it's sheer size ensured the brace gave way, and Gaara was saved from any assault of the Whirlpool ninja as a massive beam fell between them, blocking his attacks for just a second.

It was enough for the heavily disoriented red headed shinobi to get the hell out of dodge though, and he staggered sideways. His legs gave way as the sudden movement rippled through him, and the limbs refused to comply with his minds demand. The sand left Naruto's side in an instant, but his waning chakra warranted Gaara's shoulder and hip banged harshly against the hard floor without his familiar cushion.

Naruto sent him an incredulous glance as if to ask why he was lying down on the job, and Gaara shot him a half smirk as if to say because he fucking felt like it. The charade ended there however, as Naruto bolted over the beam and crouched at his side, the seven clones he'd produced god knows when, holding off Maruyama and leaving the twin tailed cat to fend for itself against Konan.

His eyes bulged widely when they set on the hundreds of sting marks marring Gaara's skin, and his question was answered before he could speak it.

"Poison, Raccoon bastard says it's stifling his chakra."

A flying kunai lodged itself millimeters above the blonde's head, and Gaara waved him away with a heated glare towards the shinobi attacking his companion. Naruto cast him a regretful glance as he pulled away, whirling on the spot, an eighth clone appearing at his side and immediately sending his hands flying in the cross over movements to create a swirling ball of red chakra.

He shot across the room; the time it took him to spat out "Rasengan," was all he needed before the moderately sized ball slammed into the ninja's thigh. A shriek filtered through the destroyed room as the shinobi was thrown backwards through the gaping hole in the wall, and Naruto watched him fall the four stories down to his death.

His blue eyes washed over the courtyard below, and fell to the glimmering waters of the man's pool he'd seen earlier with Gaara on their way up. A visible crack littered the concrete at the bottom, clearly seen through its now churning waters. The shinobi had crashed into the surface and subsequently into the hardened surface of its base; already the waters were turning red.

The water.

A splash of sunshine yellow and a violently swinging Naruto joined the cat, trying to back Konan into the corner. She fell for his trap wonderfully, jumping over their heads, her back to the destroyed wall. Massive droplets of blood spilled from the cat's side as it heaved tiredly, painful rumbles erupting from its fur-covered maw as it glared at the woman.

She laughed softly, but the sound was cut short as one of Naruto's previously formed clones jumped from the shadows and tackled her. An angry cat and calculating blue eyes watched her feet disappear, followed by a streak of yellow as Naruto dashed through the opening after her.

Gaara cried out as his companion disappeared, and he drug himself upwards. Fighting the urge to vomit the whole way up, his sand piled beneath him and scooted him across the floor. With a weakened heave he spat out _"Sabaku Fuyu,"_ and floated out into thin air.

His green eyes stared down, picking out the five or six versions of Naruto that constantly plunged into one another. A rough shake of his head forced the delirious effects away long enough to find that the blond was clutching to the woman's ankle, and was dangling several inches above the water.

From her back, four translucent fuchsia wings had sprouted, and he immediately understood why Naruto was holding onto her. The thin appendages were beating rapidly, her face split in irritation and concentration, but she was fighting a loosing battle. Their combined weight, coupled with the clone that was clinging to Naruto, were forcing her down.

As the clone's toes touched the surface of the bloodstained waters she cried out angrily, shaking her feet viciously in an attempt to rid her burden. Naruto held fast however, and the fragile wings crumpled after a final, feeble attempt to hold her aloft.

They crashed into the water, bubbles shooting upwards and exploding with an angry surge as the popped to the surface. Naruto sprang up instantly, leaping to the pools edge in one mighty jump. Konan followed seconds later, coughing harshly as she spat up gushes of water.

The dual tailed feline bolted through the wall opening at that point, descending with a wild cry upon the blue haired female. A shriek split the air as it landed atop her.

Konan fought desperately to ward off the stinging claws, but the slashed into her body without stint. A myriad of bees shot out of the collar of her black robes, but their wings beat sluggishly, droplets of water pouring off of them, before all of them sagged towards the earth, and died.

The cat sent a terrifying screech out as it dove for her neck, and nearly decapitated the woman as it wrenched away the flesh there. Konan bucked wildly beneath the cat, her hands flying upwards as her eyes bulged, but already her legs were twitching on their own accord.

She stilled moments later, fingers curled against her upturned palms, eyes unblinking as death consumed her. The massive feline stared down at its kill, panting heavily atop the deceased Akatsuki. Powerful gasps of breath shifted blue hair as it sank closer, fangs inching closer to the face.

Naruto bolted across the waters surface, barreling into the demon just before it snapped up Konan's head. The cat flew sideways, yowling angrily as it rolled over Naruto and skid several feet away on its paws, crouched down and tails swishing wildly.

Something clashed between the two of them, and the white beast hissed dejectedly as Kyuubi's chakra flared threateningly. The cat backed down, enraged that its kill had been stolen.

The transformation only took a few seconds, white fur crawling backwards across the feline's spine as it's body contorted and compacted into that of a woman's. Naruto snorted and rolled his eyes heavenwards, he should have known the bitchy cat had a female vessel.

The inner fox howled with laughter.

She collapsed to her knees, a long blond ponytail falling over her shoulder as she stared back at Naruto with one eye, the other closed and bleeding heavily. Her jaw opened and closed rapidly, each movement ushering forth a painful gulp of air. Naruto eyed the woman wearily, his blue eyes assimilating the entire picture before an extremely loud splash shattered his concentration.

The blond whirled on the spot, black fabric twirling with him as his eyes nearly popped out of his skull. Gaara was struggling to right himself in the shallow waters, long strands of red hair spilling down his face, weighed down by the thorough douse of liquid. Naruto did not spare the feline demon container another glance as he dashed backwards, leaping into the pool.

His arms encircled the red head protectively, fighting with the powerful surge of fear that clenched at his heart. Gaara's eyes were narrowing and widening reflexively, periodically crossing over one another as he fought desperately to clear his swimming head. Sand particles drifted loosely around them as Naruto pulled the failing jinchuuriki from the waters embrace, lifting him into his arms easily.

Gaara muttered something incoherently, but Naruto would not have listened to his words anyways. He was staring at the impossible number of small dots littering the pale mans skin, finally taking notice that the assault had not stopped just at the vulnerable flesh. Gaara had not worn his vest today as they'd started out in their female forms, and he'd paid the price.

The black material had hundreds upon hundreds of miniscule breaks in the cloth, and with every struggling breath white skin glistened in startling contrast to the dark shirt Gaara wore. Naruto's heart pounded fiercely in his chest as he studied the red headed man, silently begging the Kyuubi to help him.

The fox was semi compliant with him today, his bloodlust had not been satisfied in the least, but upon meeting the two tailed demon he seemed to have received the need to be dominant that he so craved. Naruto's hands glowed a steady red as he pushed his fingers beneath the hem of Gaara's shirt, and watched in morbid fascination as every puncture wound began to seep deep, velvet purple.

Several drops of the poisonous liquid squeezed through the wounds, and already Naruto could feel the Shukaku's chakra pulsing to life furiously. In his head the fox jeered maddeningly at the raccoon's feeble attempt to save it's container, but Naruto completely agreed with the Ichibi.

To his right, the woman stood to her full height, eyes narrowed, and advanced on the two men slowly. She stumbled and fell to one knee, but Naruto paid her no heed; at least not openly.

She was stopped in her tracks by a surviving clone; it's glare deep and openly issuing a challenge to anyone that dared interrupt the real Uzumaki from helping his companion. A low growl rumbled through her throat, but she did not make any further movements. Her hair swished every time she sucked down a painful gulp of air, and they both knew she was in no condition to fight the already healing Kyuubi vessel.

Instead her blue eyes roamed over Gaara's pained expression, watching as hundreds of droplets of vicious liquid squeezed from his body. The red head bucked wildly beneath Naruto's ministrations, but a second clone ran to his side in order to still Gaara's flailing limbs.

She distinctly heard the blond man's plea though, and it vaguely startled her that jinchuuriki could be so close. Her companions, the three of them stuck together because it was a common goal that united them, a mission handed down by their respective villages, but these two…

For now, she was content to simply watch the interaction with no protest.

"_God dammit Gaara, please hold on. _Please_!"_

* * *

"Joruri, do you think they'll come back?" The husky voice ground out, biting at her delicate ears harshly, but for him, the tone was wistful. 

Her thin shoulders rose and fell in a nonchalant shrug, staring out through the bars that held them captive. A soft voice floated through the room and adjoining hall, completely undermining what she was by its fragile nature. "It is past time for those that hold us to have arrived, I'm assuming they at least caused a disruption. Or perhaps it was Yugito."

His blue eye rounded on her, the black unseen in the shadows that consumed his face by the low light. "I somehow doubt she would go so far as to free us." He sneered, kicking roughly at the cobbled floor beneath him.

Flashed of green and purple assaulted his vision as she stirred, glancing at him over her shoulder. "I too doubt she would do something for the sake of our lives in themselves, but she does need us to complete our task."

The shaggy haired boy simply conceded defeat in logic by his silence, the two of them falling into an uncomfortable quiet drug on by their captive surroundings.

* * *

Gaara's head was swirling in a torrent of a pain and jumbled thoughts, stringing together and shatter to conjoin with the tail ends of others that made absolute sense to the delirious shinobi. 

Every time he heaved however, all thoughts halted as splashes of stomach acid mingled with the already churning pool waters, dissolving into the red liquid. Naruto's hands were on his sides, holding him steady as the remaining poison in his body lessened the more he spat out.

Several shaky moments later he fell back onto his rear, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. He coughed violently, his eyes crossing as he lunged forward again and lost more stomach fluid. Behind him, his companion cursed angrily at everything he could think of, blaming Gaara's condition on all but who it truly fell on.

Which was himself.

Nevertheless he remained quiet, not trusting his body with the action of opening his mouth lest he douse Naruto in something wholly unpleasant.

Eventually the wracking of his body stilled, and he waited for his vision to clear.

"Ya allright now, Gaara?" Naruto's voice was laced with concern, and it wrenched at the red head's heart. He nodded in response, clapping a hand over his mouth as his stomach threatened to make him pay for the movement.

Warm hands slid up and down his spine, and he willed himself to calm down. Those same hands twisted around his waist and hauled him to his feet gently. Gaara grunted as his head fell backwards, landing against a hard shoulder.

"Ughgo…stop." He muttered, jumbling together words that might have not have been words in the first place. Naruto held him for a moment, but he was constantly reminded that they had a potentially dangerous jinchuuriki watching them. His response was to slip a powerful forearm beneath Gaara's legs, and lift him into a secure embrace.

The redhead moaned in protest, but Naruto paid it no heed. He turned his gaze on the cat container, and waited for her to speak as his clone poofed away into thin air. Her eyes were narrowed cautiously; spine and shoulder lurched forward in an almost feline like stance.

He stared back at her, unconsciously pulling Gaara closer against him. The action went noticed, and blatant confusion drifted across her face.

"That is Sabaku no Gaara?" She whispered, staring at the red head incredulously. Naruto dipped his head in acknowledgement, blue eyes boring into her yellow as if she were going to maul his precious cargo.

"Why…who are you?" She demanded, her silky voice reaching a high pitch as her shoulders suddenly jolted upright, Naruto was bashed mercilessly with a reminder of a pink haired kunoichi he'd once known when her foot stomped agitatedly into the soil.

A dull smile curled the edges of his lips as Gaara grumbled something akin to 'I'm not a_girl_, put me down!'

"Uzumaki, Naruto."

It had no effect on her whatsoever, but she knew what he contained. Though his name carried no whispers or rumors she'd encountered before, the fact that she had witnessed, with her own eyes, the Kyuubi's chakra release from him, already both tags were being stabled down with negative emotions.

"Uzumaki. Why are you trying to save him?" She deadpanned, titling her head to the side as she stared in blatant confusion. Whilst the blond had not previously come to her attention, the red head cradled like a child in his arms was known far and wide.

That was _the_ Sabaku no Gaara.

The epitome of hatred and carnage that accompanied the title of jinchuuriki, wild rumors of sand so bloodthirsty it would bleed one's body dry before the victim could even register they were under attack.

Of a green eyed monster with the spirit of revenge as his guide, was this Naruto Uzumaki living under a rock his whole life? Didn't he know what he was trying to save?

She saw him smile down at the man in his arms, and once more her thoughts were invaded by sheer bewilderment. Obviously, he did know.

"Gaara is my friend."

He spoke the words as if they held the meaning of life to them, all it did was make her brows shoot up into her hairline.

"That _monster_, you call him your friend? Do you know what he has done?"

Naruto was fast becoming a source of profound headache for her, and when he opened his mouth again she felt a vein pulse angrily in her temple at the stupidity of his words. Who the hell _was_ this guy?

He sneered at her viciously, lips curling back to reveal slightly tapered canines that were threatening to extend should she push him over the limit.

"So says the _Nibi no Nekomata_. You don't know a damn thing about him, shut your mouth."

Both hands rose upwards, covering the sides of her face in an attempt to steer away the spitting cat in her head, and the steadily increasing dull throb of a migraine. This whole scene was like something out of a ridiculously twisted romance novel, because though Naruto had said 'friend', it would take a relatively stupid person to miss the way he clutched that pale body to him.

She snorted, of course. It was only her luck that she should stumble across other jinchuuriki, male jinchuuriki, and they'd be _gay_. Her life really sucked sometimes. She snickered quietly to herself, before it erupted into a full-scale giggle.

The blond man titled his head at the sound, on guard for an attack but wholly confused as to how she went from insulting Gaara to giggling like a small child.

"Ah, well. At least your cute together." She sniffed, wiping a tear from the corner of her eyes as her breath returned. His blue eyes popped out of his skull as he sputtered indignantly, and she found, to her great amusement, that he was trying to _deny_ it.

Ah, so they had not said anything yet. Well, in his defense, Gaara was simply hanging from Naruto's arms limply, occasionally spitting something out that were all closely related to "Uzuamki, I'm _not _a god damn girl!"

Perhaps Naruto was the one infatuated with Gaara, and the red head was not swinging that particular way. Well, it certainly made sense, she supposed after a life like the one the ex Kazekage had led would ensure one did not grow up harboring feelings very many people.

That particular thought sent her mental track careening down another direction.

"I know that he is the only survivor of the attack on Sunagakure, so that means you are not from the desert. I see no protector," she tapped her forehead, "so where the hell are you from, _Uzumaki_?"

His shoulders slumped for a split second, "Konoha."

She nearly marched over to the odd couple and punched the blond in the face, _Konoha_? Not only was he _holy shit_ gorgeous, he was a jinchuuriki, vessel to the strongest of the bijuu for that matter, and from the famed city, the village hidden in the leaves.

_And he chose Gaara?_

She fought back desperately the shriek of indignation that was building in her throat, and settled for a very noticeable twitch in her eye.

"Sand and Leaf huh? Do you realize how much of a contradiction you make?"

Naruto only fixed her with a pointed glare, but his anger was quickly dying away at the underling humor in all she'd said. Well, if he was going to take on another potential enemy, at least she could be a funny one.

Their encounter ended in a stalemate, as minutes passed in silence. Gaara was steadily rebuilding the use of his limbs, vision clearing enough to point his own smoldering look at the blond above him. His arms were shaking still; only small thrashes where as before they had been spontaneously jerking all over the place. With that small relief he seized the chanced to make Naruto howl for holding him like a woman, and pinched the living day lights out of the closest pectoral.

"OW! Ow ow ow ow ow!_OW!"_ Naruto shrieked, nearly dropping the redhead. Gaara only huffed angrily, sand creeping up the innards of his captives pants and grinding roughly against his skin.

Naruto snarled at him, roughly dropping Gaara's legs from his hold and holding back the chuckle as the red head cried out in surprise. His heels bounced off of the concrete surrounding the pool, sending sharp spikes of pain through his calves. He hissed angrily, but leaned against the arm still wrapped around his shoulders in support.

"Bastard."

Yugito giggled madly.

She was utterly amazed at the display before her, and she could not help but feel a little giddy at the horrific cuteness of the two jinchuuriki. For all the rumors spread about Gaara of the Sand, he sure was a teddy bear around this mysterious Naruto.

Both of them turned their eyes on her, and her laughter died away instantly. She toed the ground carefully, trying to approach the subject of possible aid in freeing her companions. Yogito didn't have to think too hard.

"Are you with them?" Gaara asked, steadily gazing at her. She blinked, and tilted her head, a mass amount of long blond threads falling with her as she sorted through the possibly cryptic message.

"Akatsuki or the Whirlpool bastard? No." She said bluntly, trying not to step down from those smoldering green eyes.

Naruto stepped forward, his impossibly blue stare drowning her even farther.

"Not them, the others." He paused, if she was not aware of the other jinchuuriki in the area, it might have been best to leave them out of her radar just in case she was part of the Akatsuki's circle, or otherwise. After all, a ninja could lie as easily as they could breathe.

Her eyes widened as she realized whom they were talking about. How had they stumbled across Joruri and Yuudai so quickly? A stutter escaped her lips and she backpedaled faintly, pale yellow hair sloshing between her shoulder blades as she confirmed their first theory.

"Yuudai, and Joruri. How did you find them?" Yogito squawked madly, gaping at the two men in a dazed manner. No wonder Akatsuki had stumbled across them so quickly upon converging, apparently they were _obvious._

Naruto waved his arm nonchalantly, trying to force the skinny redhead back into his arms so they could move. Gaara threatened to castrate the blond with his eyes alone. Naruto stopped trying immediately.

"Stubborn ass." He hissed quietly, but walked past the ex-Kazekage nonetheless, and motioned for Yogito to follow them. She ran up to his side immediately, feeling quite safer around him then the red head who appeared to be attempting his theory of burning holes through one's backside if he glared hard enough.

Naruto sniggered into his hand, winking at her as they returned to the bathhouse. "What's your name, by the way?" He asked, glancing over at her as his hands linked behind his head. She smiled at him, and simply said "Yugito."

He nodded, and blinked in expectance.

Yogito grinned and clucked her tongue, "Joruri is the Yonbi no Sokou, the Cockatrice. Well, we call her a Cockatrice container; it's more like a cross between a chicken and a snake. You should see the way she walks, it's creepy."

Naruto giggled with her as she shared the identity of the other jinchuuriki, somehow feeling drawn to the blond next to her. He was like a magnet, and she felt relatively safe considering the demon he bore had an imminent past with the one yowling angrily in her head amongst the whispers of the dead.

"Yuudai is the Gobi no Houkou, the wolf." She growled in her throat. "He's a prick, wild and aggressive even if you try to be nice to him. Joruri seems to like him though, so oh well." She shrugged, staring listlessly at the scenery around them as they progressed back through the town.

Gaara was on the other side of Naruto, and he peered past the flat chest to gaze at the girl. She was beautiful, but the red head was leery of her nonetheless. Something about her eyes made him squeamish, and the way she spoke. It was as if she were only half there, not to mention the fact that Yogito had voluntarily slipped into her normal human form.

She had not fainted of exhaustion, chakra consumption, nor had she fell to the ground clutching her head as the demon took over by force. Yogito had willingly transformed, and what baffled him farther, was the demon had seemingly, willingly relinquished its control to its vessel.

As far as Gaara knew, neither the Shukaku nor the Kyuubi would so much as listen to that sort of demand, that give and take.

So what was her secret? This Yugito?

What was the Nibi no Nekomata?

* * *

Yee! I'm sort of leery of this chapter, it did not come out the way I wanted it to, but we'll see. Perhaps a rewrite is in order. 

On a much happier note, Dying a Shinobi Death has a gorgeous piece of fanart thanks to the crazy-awesomeness of Supernukunuku, the link is on my bio. :)

One last update, I've taken up a third heavil chaptered fanfic, though this one will take me perhaps a week max to complete as it's written in letter corresepondance between Gaara and Naruto, so before you rip my head off in not updating Trial or Shinobi Death, take a peek at 'Calligraphy':)

Mwah! - Shy


	6. United in Hatred

**Dying a Shinobi Death**

Disclaimer: This story was not written for profit or fame, merely a tool to release some stress. Entirely fan made, it is in no way associated with the manga, anime, or production companies.

* * *

_Lay me on the ground, fly me in the sky, show me where to look_

_Teach me how to speak, teach me how to share  
Teach me where to go, tell me will love be there_

_Oh, heaven let your light shine down_

_- Collective Souls // Shine_

**Chapter Six: _United in Hatred _**

They strode through the bathhouse entrance, only taking partial notice that both corpses of the slain guards were still littering the ground, apparently unnoticed. Yugito balked at the mutilated flesh, but otherwise remained silent.

When they entered the storage room, and subsequently the small office containing the trap door leading to the two trapped jinchuuriki, her response was far from what either man expected.

"Are you two stupid?" She questioned lightly, staring at the floor as if it were a joke. Naruto blinked, and glanced towards Gaara, who only cocked his head sideways in confusion.

"'Scuse me?" Naruto asked, blinking rapidly.

She stepped forward, and tapped the edge of the door. "The door is sealed." She explained, as if it meant everything.

Naruto gaped at her, wondering if they had stumbled upon someone that had allowed the demon she possessed to drive her insane.

"Well…duh." He sneered, taking to heart the silly grin on her lips as she stared down at the floor with little interest.

"Man…here I was thinking I was safe because the Kyuubi and Shukaku vessels are following me around. How did you two make it this far?" She asked, her voice rising into a high octave as she glanced their way.

Gaara growled low in his throat, a rumbling sound that wiped the grin from her face. "Spit it out women." He hissed, and her blond hair slapped her cheeks as she backpedaled.

"The door is sealed. The _door_, the floor is untouched."

Her index finger jabbed at the wooden base in example, and Gaara felt the sting of her question of his intelligence hit home.

"Aww dammit!" Naruto cried, stomping his foot angrily. He sighed heavily and crouched down, releasing tiny waves of chakra through his fingers. The wood groaned and splintered as its molecules were forcefully pushed against, tiny cracks in the crisscrossing grains appearing as he worked.

In a matter of seconds the floor buckled violently, and Naruto gave it one sound punch that shattered the weakened material.

Yugito stared at the pair of men incredulously; vaguely filing away the fact that neither of them seemed keen on property damage unless it was pointed out such a destructive act was necessary. That meant one of two things.

They were just pansies, though she highly doubted that by the way Gaara was glaring at her.

Or, they had been learned in the act of hiding ones trail to such a degree they were actually baffled when they could not simply enter the way everyone else did. That second thought sent her thoughts down a second turn, and she wondered just how close they had come to finding what they sought.

The office was a mess, but she was willing to bet the demon within her that they had not done it. In fact, it looked as if neither of the men had touched anything but perhaps the computer sitting lazily atop the desk in the room, judging by the concentration of their scents in the center, just above the trap door.

The degree in which they scouted, and even how they had come to find out her companions were trapped a level beneath them without formally speaking with Maruyama or sneaking around in the files left her baffled, and very interested in the method they used to seek such information out.

She left her thoughts there as Naruto kicked the parted wood with a cry, and the boards beneath his heel tumbled out of sight. Gaara's sand immediately surged as his hands came together and he formed the seals to invoke his floating cloud. He stepped onto the pile, Naruto close in tow, and they disappeared from sight.

A moment later she dropped down next to them, snickering quietly that they had gone down quietly and carefully. For men, the two of them were ridiculously feminine in her opinion.

All thoughts were shoved aside as the scent of her greatest agitation wafted into her powerful nostrils, and Yugito scowled visibly.

Gaara glanced at her before silently demanding an explanation, and she sighed. "Yuudai has the wolf, you know. Kind of fundamentally wrong, considering I have the cat."

Naruto chuckled beside her as he began to walk down the dimly lit hall, glancing into each cell in search of any other survivors. None were to be found, only piles of rotting bone structures and mounds of dirt and dust, blood stains and fragmented teeth long since removed from the mouth of their owners.

The small party halted in front of the cage that held their captives, and Yugito smiled grimly as Naruto caught on to her earlier solution.

Quite literally, he punched a hole through the wall, wisely avoiding the sealed bars. Gaara understood the reasoning for the sedation, it was not meant to befuddle their minds, which explained their awareness of who he was.

More so, it was a way to quell their chakra, and prevent them from escaping as they just had.

If Akatsuki had gotten their hands on the jinchuuriki, it meant they'd be conscious enough to know that they were going to die, but weak enough to be overwhelmed if they struggled.

Gaara snarled angrily, pushing away the thoughts as he glanced at the newest members of their small circle.

The woman was staring at him as if he were the dullest creation in the world, whilst the wild looking man gaped openly at Naruto. The red head unconsciously scooted closer to his companion in protectiveness.

"Are you serious? I have been rescued by this…this…_pretty boy_?" The one Yugito called Yuudai shrieked indignantly, staring wide-eyed at his blond haired, blue-eyed savior. Naruto growled.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean, you bastard!" He howled, jabbing a finger roughly into the wolfish appearing man's shoulder. Yuudai growled in response, and both men took notice of the way his hair immediately shot skyward, harshly resembling that of a canine ready to kill.

Strangely enough, it was neither Gaara nor Naruto that stopped his attack, but the rainbow endowed women.

"Control yourself pup." She said coolly, and the red head was struck with how silky her voice sounded. It was like audible water, sliding over his senses with a cooling touch that left him dazed.

She bowed to the three of them, nodding in particular at Yugito in appreciation. "Thank you for your efforts in freeing us. You are Sabaku no Gaara?" She questioned, returning his stare with one of her own.

Gaara was infatuated with her already, she simply captivated his attention everyway she moved. Naruto scooted closer to the redhead; mildly concerned his companion was staring, not glaring.

"Yeah, I'm…um, Gaara."

Naruto nearly facevaulted, why was Gaara stuttering?

In his own thoughts, the ex-Kazekage was stunned. Did he really just forget his name? Yuudai broke into their separate moments with a rough bark-sounding laugh, outright giggling at Gaara's obvious crush on the rainbow-eyed jinchuuriki. She giggled, a thin, long fingered hand covering her lips as she smiled at the harshly blushing redhead.

Yugito was thoroughly confused. She knew she had not been hallucinating when Gaara and Naruto had been just shy of snuggling by the pool, and though she'd gathered they were not 'aware' of their mutual attraction, the red head was quite clearly _flirting_ with the Yonbi.

Who was a woman.

A wicked grin tore across her lips, and she scooted sideways towards Naruto. "Heya cutie." She whispered, chuckling heartily when his cheeks turned red and immediately began stuttering.

Gaara's green eyes narrowed instantly towards her, the corner of his lips pulling backwards across his cheekbones in a snarl. Yugito huffed, jabbing Naruto in the chest as she rolled her eyes.

"What? You can't have Joruri and Naruto!" Gaara made the strangest noise, somewhere between a squeak and a roar. The Nibi vessel shrieked with cramp-inducing laughter.

The Kyuubi wielder staggered around a bit, gaping at Yugito as if she were extraterrestrial life. She snickered in response, blowing him a kiss that sent the jinchuuriki stumbling backwards and landing on his rear with a 'thump'.

"Aw man, we really were saved by wimps." Yuudai cut in again, and Gaara's sand flared around his heels at the probe. The wolf container shot into an offensive crouch, hands extended and visible nails, jagged and torn at the edges clearly sending a warning that they had were often used to shred, shining deadly in the dim lighting.

Almost immediately Gaara was thrown against a wall, his sand covering his backside and protecting him from the fall, Yuudai was not so lucky. His head collided with the bars of his former prison, and his face contorted as pain shot through him.

Naruto was on all fours, a single tail swirling dangerously as he growled, and Yugito was already half transformed at the powerful blast of chakra that had washed over them. Her blond hair was loose, spilling around her facial features as she too went down into an animalistic stance.

Gaara was back on his feet in an instant, but he was horribly confused. What the hell had just happened? Joruri was standing in the middle of them, appearing perfect calm, before she glanced his way.

Her once iridescent eyes were lit up in a cerulean gleam, darkening into black pupils that threatened to overwhelm her beautiful eyes, and he understood immediately. His hands shot across his chest as a tendril of sand shot towards her in counter-assault, but she was at his side in the blink of an eye, his sand smashing relatively harmless into the corridor wall.

"Cease your attack, jinchuuriki. I did not mean to startle you." She whispered quietly, and the music of her voice chilled him to the bone. What had once wafted over his senses as a peaceful lullaby drug out in a deadly ping of a thrilling but dangerous melody, and his arms fell to his side.

The wolf was climbing to his feet, snarling in rolls of thunder as he too fell to all fours, duel eyes twisting into obsidian at his attacker.

She met his gaze coolly, demanding in her horrifying tinkle of sound, "I said behave."

The hair on his back fell to it's previously matted state, and a deep growl replaced the threat of immediate assault. Yugito's features were already sliding back into place, the claws of her paws retracting into long fingernails as her digits separated and formed scrunched fingers.

Naruto's tail slowly dimmed away, though the red in his eyes remained as he eyed her wearily.

Joruri inclined her head softly, gliding away from Gaara in what could be described as movement so subtle she seemed to float towards the wolf. Her hand extended politely, delicately, and he refused the offering, pulling himself erect as he glared at her.

"I apologize, Tsuji-sama. We cannot afford to attack one another here in confinement however, please control yourself whilst we are in civilization."

Her eyes were shining in multiple colors once more, voice back to its silky stature.

Gaara was turning pink again.

"Feh. One of these days woman, you will cease to catch me off guard." Yuudai hissed angrily, glaring at Joruri as if she were the source of his problems in life. Her iridescent gaze met his own without heed, staring back into his icy blue and obsidian irises calmly.

White fangs protruded from beneath his thin lips as he growled, a low rumble in his throat that hissed deadly intent, but was visibly being kept in check for one reason or another.

Naruto glanced between them for a few moments, staring intently at Gaara for a split second as his gaze moved between the figures. The redhead was seriously infatuated with the Yonbi container, and it pricked mercilessly at Naruto's heart.

What the hell!

They'd spent seven years together, scratch that, approaching eight, and in the time frame of ten minutes he couldn't peel his ruddy green eyes off of her? Naruto did not register the fact that he was audibly growling at the iridescent clad female until her gaze landed squarely on him, and his anger abated instantly.

"Er…sorry, the fox wants revenge." He muttered lamely, pointedly avoiding Gaara's faint eye-twitch in his direction.

She nodded at him serenely, her eyes falling to half lid as she studied him in return. "Kyuubi, hmn? The nine tailed fox." She whispered whimsically, and Naruto stirred beneath her gaze. He nodded and absently toed the stones beneath his heels, wishing she'd turn her mesmerizing eyes elsewhere.

Back to Gaara maybe, he seemed to like staring at her. The bastard.

Yugito forced the awkward exchange of glances and hisses with a shattering force, her voice crying out loudly as she injected her own screeching opinions into the vaguely melancholy atmosphere.

"Well, I don't mean to jump off the bandwagon here folks, but we got things to do, and standin' around falling in love with other demons ain't helpin' our cause."

Gaara glanced her way with a flash of annoyance, but she ignored him effortlessly, instead, her yellow orbs were staring at Yuudai, the faintest wrinkle between her brows, the only signal she was angered by his very presence.

He scowled back at her openly, flexing his claws in silent protest at her stare, to which she responded with a flash of white and a gleam that split the air for a brief second. There was no contest who could do more damaged with their finger nails as her own talons, sought out from the inward beast, retracted in the next instant.

"Yugi, Yuu, please control yourselves. We are amongst company."

There was her voice again, melodic and completely infuriating to Naruto in a grudging way. He loved to hear the sounds she could produce, the whimsical beat to her voice, but his mind repulsed the tune vigorously.

On a normal day Naruto would probably also be staring at her with a shine in his azure eyes and a goofy grin on his face, but Gaara had apparently assumed Uzumaki-for-the-day, and had stolen his normal reaction.

"Well, actually Joruri, could we not use these two?" Yuudai growled, his harsh voice dragging roughly across their eardrums, and Naruto visibly winced.

She peered back at him for a moment, shaking her head in dismay at his outright lack of respect.

"If the two of you are pursuing the organization known as the Akatsuki, we would be honored to join with you in your hunt. That is of course, if you are interested." She pointedly stared at Yuudai, indicating harshly his lack of sense for not asking them in the first place.

Gaara glanced at Naruto, and the anxious feeling that had arisen in his belly at the request quelled immediately. Here, Joruri could not interfere with Gaara, because here, it was only the two of them.

She could not intermingle in Naruto's affairs, nor could she test the strength of their non-existent relationship. As beautiful, soft, and wholly lovely as she was, Naruto had seven years of Gaara's time to hold on to, she had all of two minutes.

He felt a little like sticking his tongue out at her.

Gaara's green eyes stared into his own, pondering the pros and cons whilst Naruto continued to grin vaguely at Joruri's lack of interference between them in that particular moment.

"Perhaps, five strong, we would become more effective."

Naruto nodded along as if he were actually listening, until he realized what was being said.

"Wait, what? Eh? Gaara!" He squawked, staring wide-eyed as the red head in question averted his gaze back towards the blond.

"Well whatever, we could do without the pretty boy any-" Yuudai began, grinning with a feral gleam at Naruto, but his words were harshly cut out.

"No." Gaara's interjection was low and growled out, and Naruto was forced to squash away the smile forming at the corners of his lips.

"I will not go anywhere without Uzumaki."

Joruri nodded in all of her prismatic glory, whilst the Gobi vessel merely scowled. Yugito simply bobbed her head along with the conversation, ready to lash out and shred someone. It seemed to be inevitable with the addition of Kyuubi and Shukaku amongst them anyhow.

"Er well…Gaara, if you want to go along I guess that's all right. Were just going to have to break up into groups when we go into the towns and designate some sort of rallying point to meet up again. A group this large, with our unique chakra signatures…we are bound to pick up unwanted attention sooner or later."

The redhead nodded, and folded his arms across his chest, tilting his head as he reconsidered from different angles.

"I apologize for interrupting, but if you would perhaps join us at least until we vacate the town's premises? I am sure the Akatsuki will catch wind of the death of one of their members soon, please." That soft, musical chime trilled over them again, and both men turned their attention to her outstretched hand, Yuudai already in the lead.

They clambered out of the small dungeon, office room, and bathhouse, each breathing a respective sigh of relief now that they were not forced to be in such close proximity to strange jinchuuriki.

With swift footsteps they left the village behind, running deep into the surrounding forest. Even there however, both Naruto and Gaara felt supremely exposed to danger. The Rock country held very little true covering, after all. Its forests were not dense, and as Naruto had pointed out in the only way he knew how, they were called the Rock country for a reason.

There were a whole lot of rocks.

Both survivors fell back together, side by side and away from the main group to further assess their situation. Gaara was all for the idea, he was craving the chance to truly strike fear into the Akatsuki, and five of the demonic vessels working together would strike fear into an immortal, he was certain.

Akatsuki were most certainly not immortal, as they had just witnessed first hand.

What better opportunity?

Naruto on the other hand, was vaguely shy of joining forces, for several different reasons. The first and foremost was the idea of five highly volatile and extremely dangerous jinchuuriki stuck together for an unaccountable amount of time.

Yuudai had already proven to be a threat, his prime danger being the merciless taunting. Naruto could easily ward off any pokes to his character and person, but Gaara was hot headed, and easily angered.

Yugito couldn't keep her damn hands off of him, and she seemed more interested in finding a suitor then actually fighting. Gaara wouldn't be phased by such acts he was sure, but she could step over the line, simply because she didn't know where his lines were, and cause _him_ to go into angry-fox mode.

The least effective but one that still weighed upon his thoughts was Gaara's apparent crush on Joruri, Naruto was certain the redhead would eventually open his mouth. Gaara was simply not one to keep his opinions to himself for very long, and with his power, his mysterious personality, hell, even his good looks, the blond was very sure he'd have an accidental threat to what he had already personally claimed.

He glanced sidelong at the redhead running along next to him, smiling lightly at the way his hair flew wildly around his cheekbones and forehead. The sunlight deepened the crimson scar flowing down his brow, and Naruto caught his eye for the briefest moment.

He turned back to study those in front of them, irritated that the Yonbi caught his eye first by her ridiculously flamboyant hair. She almost seemed to be sliding across the ground, hardly any movement detected by even his tirelessly trained eye, yet she moved faster then the rest of them.

Yuudai's wild mane of silver hair pillowed out as he sprinted, occasionally slapping his back and arms. Even here, facing away from Naruto and running for all he was worth the man harshly permeated a sense of the wild. An outright surge of primitive and feral aggression marked his stance. His muscles bulged in the correct places, even the way his feet hit the ground to lunge his body forward closely resembled that of a wolf for some reason.

Yugito was the definition of tomboy it seemed, with her long blond ponytail, that was her most girlish feature. She ran with a hunch in her spine, always prepared to spin around in the blink of an eye and lay into someone. He was surprised to find that she was flat-footed, and it gave her run an awkward sort of fast limp that didn't do well to flatter the eye. Her multiple weapon pouches bounced against her waist, and the backpack on her shoulders thudded heavily against her, but she seemed comfortable.

He shook his head slightly; they were the best bet to drawing out the Akatsuki. Even if they were a hazard to both Naruto and Gaara's health, what remained of the organization would be drawn to such a massive collection of that which they sought.

It would be a deadly trap, one that could easily backfire and turn them against one another even before the Akatsuki had the opportunity to inject their lethal ceremony to rid them of life and demon.

But it was a chance, he decided, that was worth it.

It was worth getting revenge.

"Yeah, we'll stay with you guys for a little while." He said, and only a backwards glance from Yuudai was his response.

They tore through the fields, to the untrained eye impossible to decipher blurs of flesh and clothing, indefinable colors melding together. Naught but leaves were ruffled in their wake, and with the exception of Joruri's flashy appearance, they were incredibly stealthy.

Half a day's journey away from the town, they ceased their flight and set to work creating an opening in the dense foliage around them. Yugito was a natural leveler, it seemed. With her razor thin claws she could shred the thin plants growing through the underbrush with ease, and they made full use of her ability.

Gaara worked his magic with the animals; he caught two wild hogs and lugged them back to camp with a bounce in his step. His catches delighted the company, it seemed the foreign jinchuuriki were not accustomed to actually living off of the wild. They seemed to regard their stays in the wilderness as a sacrifice a shinobi offered to perform their duties, and all three watched quietly as Naruto and Gaara made themselves at home.

Yuudai slashed through the available wood and brush, gathering what was already old and dying into a pile, and intermingling it with a thick log. The fire would burn long enough to cook with such a massive amount of timber to feed off of, that's all they needed. He formed a separate pile of additional brush to burn when needed, inspecting his work with a satisfied eye.

Joruri pulled a collection of bowls from her backpack, small and only able to hold meager portions at a time, but at least they wouldn't have to eat from their hands. Following the bowls she withdrew tin cups, and some silverware. With the eating tools in hand she made her way to the nearby river and washed them out, smiling as the salmon in the stream jumped into the air.

Naruto directed them in their tasks, helping the Gobi container as he lugged the heavy branches, and shaped them into a fire pit. From his own supply of niceties they'd picked up over the years, a long, thin plate was set out above the wood. Fire was set to the pile, and as it licked the underbelly of the thin sheet of metal and the animal's meats set atop it, almost instantly the sizzle of fat and blood crackled through the air.

Whilst Joruri watched over their meal, occasionally turning it over and checking for tenderness, the males and Yugito headed towards the stream. Naruto was still extremely leery of her, his memory of Sakura had dimmed over time, and being around another tomboyish female put him on edge.

She was worse the Haruno had ever been though; Yugito stripped her clothes off without hesitation and splashed into the crystal clear waters with a whoop. Yuudai stole his chance to prod fun at her body and hair, effectively starting a bathing war.

"Che, you see that? Small breasts! Absolutely no curves at all, and the hair! You don't even _have _hair, you have a wire brush on your head!"

She retaliated with a snarl, and a powerful pulse of water went flying into the wolf man's face. He came up sputtering, ears lying flat against his scalp as he growled.

A miniscule but no less damaging tsunami wave resulted, and the blond girl came up hissing and spitting like that of a cat tossed out in a rainstorm. Both Gaara and Naruto shifted uneasily away from the war, content to simply keep a look out for new intruders and keeping an eye on their new companions.

They bathed quickly, out, dry, and clothed before the fighting wolf and cat containers ever gave a second thought to actually cleansing their bodies of dirt. As night began to fall over the forest, throwing the trees into elongated shadows that consumed them, they started back.

Joruri was waiting patiently for them, and they ate in stony silence. As the night wore on and the meal consumed, she collected her dishes, and bade them good night as she made her own way to the stream to wash the wares and bath herself.

Two days passed in relative peace in the same manner, the small group making their way across the countries massive planes, and heading into the next stations boundaries.

In all honesty, the fact that three days passed before their tentative acceptance was blown to high hell was a feat within itself.

The fourth day saw a rather large explosion of jinchuuriki power, pointed at one another's throats.

As their lunch was consumed, Gaara decided he would like to take a bath. It was not his course of action that provoked the incident; it was the fact that he wanted someone to accompany him.

"I'm going to the river to bathe." It was all he said, and only a light nod was his answer. He'd of seen it if he'd bothered to pay attention to who he was speaking to. His pale hand extended without though, and only a moment later tan digits wrapped around his palm, climbing to his feet in acceptance.

They collected their clothing, and turned to leave before a snort met their ears, followed by the rough and faintly painful exhalation that was Yuudai's voice.

"What the fuck? Why are you holding _hands_?"

Both men broke apart at the harshly pointed out action, and both whirled, contrite at their daily routine interrupted. In the three days prior, they had bathed as a group save for Joruri, who preferred to bathe away from the men and take her solace as a woman would on any normal occasion. She bathed alone, away from wondering eyes and hands.

This was the first time the small group, save for Yugito's slight show in the town, witnessed the effects of forced companionship over so many years. Gaara would simply not go anywhere without Naruto, and vice versa.

"Aww I see, is wittle Gawa in lurve?"

Gaara's fists curled as his green eyes narrowed dangerously, and the sand rolled threateningly at his heels. Yuudai howled with laughter, slapping his knee as his eyes squeezed shut from the force of his mirth.

"Oooh, touchy wittle Gawa?" He hissed through a smirk, blue and black irises enamoring his facial expression to perfection.

Gaara's pupils disappeared behind gold plated diamonds.

"Aha! Check it out, the sand boys got a crush." Yuudai grinned, chuckling hoarsely as he stared back. "Can't go anywhere without your little Kyuubi bitch, can you Sabaku?" He hissed.

Naruto was halfway up his throat before the boy could realize he was no longer standing at Gaara's side.

"We'll see who's the bitch you fucking mongrel." He hissed, claws embedding in the thick flesh of Yuudai's muscular neck. Twin tails twisted maddeningly around one another, red hot chakra spiking off of the blonde's body as his face came perilously close to Yuudai's.

Instinctively the man's canines jutted from his upper gum, lips curling back to reveal sparkling white bone tapered into perfect points. A blood-chilling growl erupted from his chest, his lips quivering as it poured from his mouth.

Naruto was over him in an instant, sending the dangerously close to retaliating jinchuuriki over the log he'd been perched upon, and sprawled now on his back as his own eyes began to give way to mutual blackness.

Naruto responded with a powerful surge of demonic chakra, hissing and snarling his own reprieve as the wolf jinchuuriki shrieked. His flesh bubbling and snapping apart at the surface where foreign chakra singed his skin.

Black lines ringed Naruto's thin lips, his own fangs curling around the delicate skin. "Do you want to fight, puppy?" He cooed, hands at the Gobi's cheeks, forcing his skull into the earth with very little effort.

Yuudai howled in pain as white starbursts erupted behind his eyes, the pressure on his skull driving away all instinct but to flee from what threatened to end his life prematurely. He sent a powerful right hook towards Naruto's vulnerable ribcage, effectively throwing the fox vessel from him.

Both men were down on all fours instantly, hissing and snarling their mutual hatred and a shared energy that sent them both skywards. They had both been anticipating something like this since their initial meeting, and Yuudai craved the gore beneath his fingernails, and the coppery tinge of blood in his maw.

Naruto simply wanted to shred the bastard from nose to navel and leave him to bleed to death in the blistering sun for talking about Gaara in such a way.

Gaara himself however, was not to be forgotten. As if to remind the Gobi that he was not in a fair fight, seeing as how neither of his female companions jumped to aid him, merely sat around looking faintly amused, his sand slithered across the dirt.

It curled up Naruto's hind legs, beneath and atop his clothing, swirling around his flesh as it surged forward. Heavy waves of granules enveloped his body in a clear warning, it dripped from his shoulders and face in tiny gusts of beige, leaving no room to question not only his power as a jinchuuriki, but even if Yuudai could get close enough to do damage, Naruto's own skin would be painful.

Three tails waggled behind him, orange and red hues gusting as his energy surged, and Naruto's azure eyes, long since replaced by a crimson screen, narrowed to slits befitting his tenant.

They lunged at the same time.

A collision ensued, painful to both parties, but neither would feel it until they calmed. Naruto's face was rent open, gashes shallow but long slicing through the sand that protected him and drawing out the crimson liquid beneath.

A howl split the air as Yuudai flew backwards with enough force to shatter his spine, the damage only nullified as he bounced off of the slightly forgiving unpacked soil. Gaara's sand wrapped around his ankles as he skid, whipping his body back into Naruto's lethal swinging range, effectively sending the boy to his death.

As Naruto's fists hurtled downwards, a flash of white and black split the air for a brief moment, and Naruto found himself on his backside, staring into blue skies. Yuudai took his chance, roughly shoving aside the cat now in their fray angrily as he shot towards the stunned jinchuuriki, ignoring the shriek of pain as Gaara took his frustrations out on the interfering Yugito.

They may not have liked one another in the least, but Yugito and Yuudai shared a connection if only through a common enemy, and she loved a good brawl herself. It was enough to provoke her into the fray, and thusly sending a rather hearty swipe at Gaara's chest.

The complete opposite of Yuudai's, it was thin and long, and quite painful as soon as it ripped through his sand armor and tore his flesh apart with five simultaneous strokes. Naruto saw little but red as his partner hissed in pain, sending a rough sheet of sand flying towards his feline assailant.

She hissed angrily as it rent her half formed fur into little puffs of hair, grating against her still partially exposed skin painfully, ripping tiny morsels of skin cells away painfully.

Tiny pricks of blood licked the air as it flew from her body, and Yuudai tackled Naruto to the ground, claws attempting to scratch again through the thick armor protecting the Kyuubi demon.

His reward was a jaw shattering punch that sent him heavenwards before gravity forced him down again, slamming his already broken bones into the earth with enough power to knock him out. His shaggy white hair flittered on the soft breeze Naruto's whirling power created as he sunk into blackness.

Yugito was not so lucky to simply fall unconscious, or she simply refused to give in. She sprung back to her feet just as Naruto's wildly swirling figure slammed into her side, sending them both tumbling. Gaara's sand held her fast to the earth as she struggled against it, howling in rage as Naruto was over her like the looming shadow of death.

His face was low, cheek nuzzling hers as she screamed in pain. His chakra burned her white fur into ash, and scorched the pink flesh beneath until it was scabbed and blistered.

He only pulled away as the cat's feature melted away, and she cried out in a purely human voice.

Gaara's sand retracted as well, pillowing behind him in a sparsely congealed mass of beige, still agitated it could not feast on true blood.

Naruto's tails flickered as they dimmed, staring down his still conscious opponent until those blue eyes returned to grace the world with their presence. "Done?"

She nodded faintly, eyes rolling up into her skull as the pain set in, and Gaara turned to Joruri. "Did you have anything to say?"

She shook her head serenely, gazing dazedly at the unconscious form of the Gobi and waved them off.

"Weren't you going to bathe? Surely, if you did not need it then, you do now."


	7. Blood Bathing

**Dying a Shinobi Death**

Disclaimer: This story was not written for profit or fame, merely a tool to release some stress. Entirely fan made, it is in no way associated with the manga, anime, or production companies.

* * *

_When divided we stand baby, united we fall_

_Got the time got a chance gonna make it, got my hands on your heart gonna take it_

_I don't know what we're fighting for, when we treat each other baby, like an act of war_

_Can't stop the hurt inside, when love and hate collide_

_Def Leppard // When Love and Hate Collide_

**Chapter Seven: Blood Bathing**

Gaara opened his eyes wearily several days later, staring out into the dawning horizon with a whimsical expression on his face. Naruto must have lost weight again, because he didn't seem to be as heavy as normal, pressed against his chest like that.

He shoved that thought aside in favor of something far more appalling then Naruto's weight fluctuation. There was a second weight pressed against him, and Gaara stiffened. His meditations were always deep with Naruto, bordering on the brink of unconsciousness, but never truly falling beneath in case the demon awoke. The only draw back it seemed, was he'd fallen in such a sense of security with only himself and Naruto around, he did not detect someone else rolling onto him during the night.

Slowly he lowered his gaze, and nearly cried out.

Naruto wasn't laying on him at all, Yugito was sprawled across his chest, snoring quietly, and the massive puff of white hair against his cheek could only belong to the damned Gobi.

He sat up slowly, not wanting to arouse the other two jinchuuriki in a state of defense and have himself smacked around so early in the morning. Joruri was sitting upright across from him, humming softly as she stroked a head of sunshine yellow.

Gaara's heart clenched painfully.

Naruto was curled in her lap, fingers gripping her thighs tightly as he slept. He was having another nightmare; Gaara could detect the vague signs easily. The way his brow came together in a slight pinch, the way his bottom lip quivered every few moments as someone else he'd once loved died, and the white of his knuckle as he clung to serenity.

Serenity the Yonbi was offering him, serenity Gaara wasn't.

She caught his eye and smiled softly, motioning at the two pressed around him. "It seems you and I have been bestowed upon the role of protector in their dreams." She whispered softly, shifting her gaze downwards.

A sad smile spread across her lips as she stroked his hair again, resuming the song she was singing. Naruto visibly relaxed as her voice drifted over him, and Gaara wrenched his gaze elsewhere forcefully.

He roughly pushed the Nibi away, ignoring her moans of protest and the startling angry snore of Yuudai as warmth left him. Climbing to his feet, he glanced around, unsure of where to go now. He always had Naruto with him, when the blond awoke it was time to go.

For seven years Gaara had not had the need to think of where he was going, all he'd ever had to do was glance sideways and read the sparkling blue. But Naruto wasn't at his side this morning, he was curled like a kitten in Joruri's lap, trying to fend off his worst memory relieved.

For some reason, this stung. Considerably.

And the damned Yonbi, in all of her iridescent beauty, was reading his fucking mind.

"Would you mind taking him, Gaara-sama? He woke me during the night, thrashing around and whimpering. I could not leave him to suffer the night alone, but I'm afraid my legs are asleep and I have not had adequate time to slumber myself."

He gazed at her for a moment, realizing after a moment that he was beginning to understand her subtle hints easily. They'd been together for only a week, and already he was coming around to her in particular.

He stepped forward without a word as she slid delicately from Naruto's head, her brow twitching faintly as he whimpered loudly at the loss of comfort. Gaara took her place, and he squashed down the smile threatening to form on his lips with a vicious stomp as Naruto froze in his sleep, and wriggled upwards.

Even unconscious the boy seemed to know when he was truly safe, because while he'd slept the night away with his head in Joruri's lap, he wormed his way upwards until his head was against Gaara's shoulder blade, and he was comfortable between his legs, both arms around the paler man's torso in a hug.

Gaara could not help himself, his fingers wound around a sturdy ribcage covered in rippling muscle, and he pulled Naruto against him tightly, smiling brightly as the whimpers and faint twitches stopped immediately.

Joruri was beautiful, she was heavenly, divine in all aspects, but she was not Gaara. She did not know how to hold the blond when his nightmares assaulted his mind, she did not know how to apply pressure to that particular spot in his lower back that made Naruto feel secure even as he slumbered, and she certainly did not possess the muscular chest Naruto felt the most content upon.

That was the day Gaara understood their roles within the group. It hit him like a rather well thrown punch, and he mentally chided himself as he watched her take his previous place.

As Yugito's head fell upon her soft stomach, smiling even in her dreams at the familiarity, and Yuudai's thunderous snores quelled to soft snorts at her thin body's presence, Gaara understood.

She had neither accepted nor denied Gaara's immediate appreciation of her beauty and voice, she scolded and chided but she did not interfere. She brought them down and made them do as she wished with a soft voice and the threat of powers yet unseen. Was their ever a role unfulfilled by that of a mother?

It had taken him a long while, by his own standards, to see past the beauty and the wild display of sparingly but awe-striking power she possessed. For the better part of that first week Gaara was in a haze of thoughts, trying to sort out his companions as he fought to hold on to Naruto.

It agitated him to no end that Yugito seemed effective as the days passed in her attempts to woo him over to her side. They played around together, giggling and laughing as Yuudai poked and prodded at Gaara's head like Kankuro used to. They played in the waters, splashing one another until their blond tendrils were nearly brown, so thoroughly saturated with liquid.

Gaara tightened his grip on the man in his embrace, and let his head fall against the soft head as he breathed in Naruto's scent.

They made their way across the plains of desolate Rock country, avoiding major cities, and slipping into their roles as the group converged on a second source of information. Though it proved to be faulty, it gave them a glimpse of what they could achieve as a team. It gave Gaara a rather frightening brush with certain death. It also gave Gaara a tremor of fear that had nothing to do with his near dying experience, but rather, who saved him from the maws of the grim reaper.

"'Ey boss, t'ere's some 'usky red 'ead outside lookin' to spend a few minutes of 'is time with you, you want me to let 'im in?"

Gaara could hear the gunshot quite well, but that wasn't what made him quake slightly. This was the first time in the many years they'd done this sort of thing, that he was trying to seduce another man…as a man.

Quite frankly it scared him shitless, but his impassive mask was in place and he passed off the shivering to the stalking blond fox and the prowling silver wolf as the cold night air.

The stench of freshly spilt blood curled against his senses, and Gaara sneezed loudly as it tickled his nose. The door was thrown open, and he found himself staring down the barrel of a rather long piece of artillery. He nearly smiled.

The gun relaxed in it's owners hands, and Gaara squeaked as a powerful hand enveloped around his bicep and yanked him into the building, slamming the door as soon as his feet crossed over the threshold.

He was shoved rudely in an overstuffed chair; it's leathery scent engulfing his nose as he forced himself to look away from the poor soul with a bullet hole in his head and blood splattering the wall behind him.

"What the hell do you want, kid?"

His voice was pleasant; strangely unraveling everything else they'd come to find out about this man. Gaara glanced up and studied the man, pretending to tremble as his gaze flickered every now and then to the corpse behind his target.

"U-u-um."

He shot to his feet and tried to make it to the door, movements kept slow and deliberately off balance as he crashed to the wooden floor in his feigned attempt to flee, and found himself jerked back by that same powerful grip.

As he rolled over, green eyes wide in fear, he cowered down from the man looming over him, pointing that rather intimidating weapon right between his eyes.

"I-I'm sorry. I t-think I got the w-w-wrong address." He whispered, eyes still wild in mock fear and his tongue still tripping over itself in true terror. He did not want to do this at all.

He'd been more or less pushed into this role, because Naruto's physique simply did not allow for him to be physically overpowered so easily, which is what this big, burly man seemed to like in his flings.

A strange expression wafted across the man's brown eyes as he stared down the length of his gun at the man on his floor. He smiled crookedly, and offered a hand. Gaara took it tentatively, and he was yanked up with a powerful force.

Rubbing his arm as he winced, he shot another terrified look at the man's late-bodyguard. "I'm s-sorry mister. I r-really think I g-got the wrong address." He whispered, his eyes lowered, refusing to meet the targets eye.

A warm chuckle wafted over him, and he glanced up to find chocolate orbs dancing in the low-lit room.

"Aren't you a cute thing?"

Gaara blushed, lowering his eyes to the floor.

"I guess you're here to meet my brother though, hm? He won't be back until morning."

Gaara cocked his head, mind racing. "I was just looking for the guy that owns the, um, t-the restaurant at the center of town."

The man nodded, still smiling like he was everyone's best friend. "That'd be him, he ain't around though, like I said, he won't be here until morning. What'd you need with him anyhow?"

Gaara flushed again as the man let an appreciating once-over roam his pale body, and he found himself staring at the floor in true embarrassment. "I was wondering if he was hiring, but I got a little carried away with a few friends…sorry for the late hour."

The man nodded, his long brown hair fluttering lightly at the movement. "Well that's all right kid, I don't know if he's hiring or not, but your welcome to stick around until he comes home to ask him yourself."

Gaara glanced up again, mind already ticking away on possible scenarios this could end in.

"Oh that's all right, I should probably head back to my friends house. I don't want to intrude on your um…work." He finished weakly, pointing a finger over his shoulder at the bloody corpse with half its brains littering the floor.

The man laughed warmly, waving it off. "Oh him? He was talking too loud, should know better then to say personal business out in the open like he did. How he's supposed to protect my brother with that loud mouth of his was beyond me, so I relieved of him of duty."

Gaara quirked an eyebrow, a faint smile on his lips at the ridiculously humored underlining tone at such a harsh sentence. "Oh."

The man retreated, his gun falling to his side as he turned his back on Gaara and waved him over to the small circular table for two near the back of the room.

"Come and have a drink with me kid, I don't know if you've ever seen someone's brains or not, so I'd imagine you'd need somethin' to calm your nerves."

Gaara nodded vaguely, gingerly toeing his way over. For some reason he did not feel very manly in the presence of the goliath inviting him over like an old friend. He rather felt sort of feminine, even in his male form, with those thick arms and powerful legs his targets-brother possessed.

A small wink was sent his way, and his cheeks lit up crimson. "If you don't mind me asking, sir…why exactly is it bad to speak so loudly of business?"

The man laughed heartily, waving him over.

"Are you gay?"

Gaara stopped in his tracks, blinking rapidly.

"Erm, uuhhh…" his green eyes fell to the floor, and another rich laugh washed over him like a warm blanket.

"All right then kid, that's enough of an answer. This town is ass backwards you see, still stuck on marriage and reproduction, no room for me and you to live so openly here."

Gaara found his warm gaze again, and nodded softly. "I see."

"With my brother at the center of the town's economy, can't really afford to have someone blabbering about his little bro's flings, ya see? It'd turn people away at the door, and then one of two things would happen. Someone else would come in or take over, which we can't have cause I rather like living in luxury.

Or the whole town's gonna go to shit, which is more likely the outcome, because my brother owns half this place and if the lights around his name die out, so does the economy, and were sitting in the dark."

Gaara nodded, hating the strange liking he had taken to this man. He was ruthless, that much was certain because of the horribly dead body on the floor, but he was ruthless for a reason. He had someone to protect.

He had someone precious.

He was protecting his brother, sacrificing his own freedom and comfort so his brother could remain where he was, and glancing around the warmly decorated room they were in, his brother was doing fairly well for himself.

"But like I said, big bro won't be home till morning, so if you'd like to share a drink and a story or two, feel right at home."

Gaara nodded, sitting himself opposite the man with tiny steps and subtle movements.

"What's your name kid?"

The redhead paused, glancing upwards at the brown eyes glittering sweetly in the lighting. He didn't feel like lying to his man, something about him simply drew him in.

"Gaara."

A slight nod was his response as the man turned slightly, gun still lying across his lap for easy grabbing, and snatched up a large bottle of liquor yet unopened that was perched on a wooden stand behind him.

Two shot glasses aided the drink, and he filled them both appropriately, sliding one across the table to Gaara with the ease of a pro bartender.

"Drink up kid, this stuffs delicious." He said, a wink and a warm, cheeky grin shot the redheads way accompanying his words.

Gaara drained the shot in one liquid swig, blushing at the roar of laughter opposite him.

"Damn, the kid can drink!"

Gaara smiled weakly, setting his glass down gently atop the table's surface, and only slightly protesting as a double was poured in its place. He sipped at the second offering, taking notice that the man's own glass was untouched.

He was questioning the ingredients in the drink before he watched the whole thing tip upside down and a steady stream of caramel brown liquid disappeared into a waiting mouth. The man wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, grinning like a schoolboy at Gaara.

"I love this stuff, tastes like candy, eh?" He grinned, taking another hearty swig from the bottle itself as Gaara downed his own firewater with a grimace.

"If you like candy that burns."

The man laughed his warm chuckle again, and threw a hand across the table to ensnare Gaara's considerably smaller, and pumped it up and down a few times.

"I like ya kid. Name's Kisho."

Gaara nodded as his muscles protested the rough up and down motion his arm was subjected to, and he shot a small smile towards the other man. His hand relinquished, he rubbed it again.

The room had taken on a lovely warm hue, and the man across from him looked strangely like one of his Sand shinobi he remembered from childhood.

A small flush crept up his neck as his green eyes glittered warmly in the pale lighting, and the man across from him smiled back just as happily.

Gaara's alcohol consumed mind gave way to reality the next morning with his face in a wholly foreign chest, and an arm several sizes too big to be Naruto's wrapped around his torso. The only thing he could think of was he was rather warm, and he really, really liked the drinks they'd shared.

Naruto was in absolute frenzy, his blue eyes were bloodshot and his hair was sticking out at all ends more so then usual, because he'd been ripping at it the night through. They could easily make out the forms in front of them through the windows, and as the night wore on Gaara had steadily gotten drunk, giggling and blushing as the man shot jokes and sad stories his way.

Sharing lives.

Beside him, Yuudai had started the night sharing his own jokes with Naruto, the vast majority of them centering on Gaara on his horribly feminine ways. Naruto had gone so far as to indulge the wolf and laugh along with him interjecting some of his own as the night wore on and the heavy weight in his chest pressed down harder.

But even the Gobi back off when they'd stood from the table and collapsed onto the floor in a drunken fit, giggling at their inaptitude and crawling towards one another in a laughing fit. Koshi had ensnared the red head in a bear hug, petting his crimson locks tenderly as Gaara snuggled closer and told him all about the lovely thing he called home.

Which sounded oddly like Naruto, too bad he couldn't hear it through the thick windows.

Koshi listened as his newfound friend painted a picture of a blond angel with blue eyes, and a heart of gold. He smiled down at the man in his arms, holding him close and simply listening as Gaara spoke of dreams and wishful thinking

Gaara had suddenly turned in his embrace, and glanced up at the man still towering over him in childlike innocence. "Do you have anyone precious?"

Koshi had simply shaken his head no, and recounted his own precious lover who had up and stormed out one day, ranting about the awful treatment his brother bestowed upon them and forcing them to hide their happiness.

He'd given him an ultimatum, and Koshi had put him six foot under in a rage at the idea of losing his beloved brother versus his own personal angel. He knew the pain of sacrifice, and Gaara was drawn like a moth to the flame at the anguish in his chocolate eyes.

Somewhere in that indulgence, their lips had brushed ever so faintly before Gaara's mind buzzed away in dark places and soothing meditation, and he'd relaxed until he was little but a redheaded rag doll in the bigger man's embrace. Koshi had laughed and settled against the wall, cuddling the thin man in his arms as he was lulled into peaceful slumber by alcohol and fuzzy feelings.

Yuudai kept strangely silent as Naruto's tears fell.

He was not supposed to be doing this. Gaara was always subjected to kisses and far more horrendous things on the nights he had to pick up on information. Naruto knew very well Gaara's first kiss had gone to some trashy bitch that thought he was too ensnared in her overly large bosom and swaggering hips that she didn't realize there was a shuriken sticking out of her throat and a second man in the room before she hit the ground and bled to death moments later.

No, he had seen this many, many times. What he had never seen was the warmth between the two in the room. Naruto had never watched Gaara go of his own free will into someone's arms and cuddle up like a little boy. He had never watched _Gaara_ kiss someone else first.

A stiff growl resounded at his side, and Yuudai yanked him upwards to the roof with a mighty wrench. They fell into mutual crouches, glancing over the edge of the roof as dawn lit up the sky and fast approaching was someone, if possible, even larger and more muscular then the bastard snuggled up to Gaara beneath them.

He shot into the small building, throwing open the door with a harsh and vicious cry. Gaara jerked upright, the man encircling him on his feet in an instant. He stared his brother down guiltily; shifting nervously behind the redhead still perched on the floor.

"_KOSHI!"_

The roar made Naruto's ears hurt, and he was outside and above the man. It was with no small amount of satisfaction he realized Gaara's ears must be just shy of bleeding after that wracking yell.

The man, apparently named Koshi, jumped at his address, and flickered his gaze once at the redhead at his feet, before stepping past him.

"What, brother?" He asked calmly, his voice underlying the jumpiness he was portraying at having a massive hangover and a rather rambunctious older brother to contend with this early in the morning.

The beast of a man roared angrily, pointing a comdemning finger down at Gaara's still slouched form and the still rather dead and bloody corpse of his former guardian lying innocently in the corner of the room.

"Didn't I tell you about bringing your little fucking boyfriends home, Koshi? Do you realize what the hell you did last night? That little bastard was all around town asking for me, and now people know that he stayed the god damn night here! I can't fucking leave your sorry ass alone for one god damn minute before you go and blow everything all to hell and back for one fucking night of fun! What the hell is wrong with you?"

Koshi paled visibly and gently prodded Gaara's backside with his toe, trying to rouse him from his drunken haze. What he assumed was sleep was actually deep meditation, but that proved to have little significance because it seemed the meditation was deeper then sleep, and was thus more difficult to rouse the 'slumbering' red head from his current state.

"Gaara, Gaara wake up." He hissed, and glanced up at his brother as an audible gasp of shot drifted across the room.

"Gaara? Did you just fucking say Gaara?" The massive man questioned, staring unbelieving at his brother as if he had suddenly grown a rather strange and obnoxiously striking body part out of thin air.

"Er well, that's what he said his name was."

Naruto and Yuudai were already slinking across the roof, perfectly content to let Gaara handle his own battles when he'd so carelessly drawn attention to himself. Naruto more inclined then Yuudai, because his heart was still aching and it was Gaara's damn fault.

"_Koshi! That's the jinchuuriki! JINCHUURIKI!"_

His brown eyes shot wide open, and his gaze whipped down to meet the unblinking eyes of a now wholly awake Sabaku no Gaara.

"What the…is he…are you?"

Gaara nodded faintly as he drew one leg to his chest, settling one long, pale arm across his knee as he leaned back and glared past his night companion to his brother. "I am Sabaku no Gaara. You are correct."

His eyes narrowed, taking notice of the immediate rolls of sweat that poured from the man in front of him, Koshi simply staring at him as if he couldn't quite fathom the soft, vulnerable boy he'd been cuddling with only hours ago was such a powerful being, even years after his raging past had come to a startling halt.

Gaara was expecting a rant, perhaps the whipping out of Koshi's seemingly favorite weapon, his rather shiny and massive gun. What Koshi actually did scared the hell out of the redhead beyond words.

He fell to one knee, and scooted across the floor on all fours, stopping in front of Gaara with a blank look on his face. His gaze never left Gaara's until his brow forced his eyes downwards, as his forehead touched the wooden floor.

"Kazekage-sama. Forgive me; I did not know you…I…you have changed. Please forgive my ignorance."

Those words sent a tendril of fear shooting in all directions of his body. Seven years since that title had been attached to his name. Seven grueling, agonizing years since he had donned the hat and stepped out in the robes.

Seven years since he'd been home, in the desert plains of the Wind country.

He stared at Koshi wide-eyed, and above him he felt Naruto and Yuudai come to a screeching halt. They were in the doorway opposite his body in the next second.

"I should not have taken advantage of the situation, please forgive my rudeness, Kazekage-sama." Koshi whispered into the floorboards, and Gaara continued to stare at him in awe.

Naruto gaped wide-eyed, and Yuudai flexed his claws in preparation. This wasn't right, how the hell could the man not know who Gaara was, and yet, know him? It ran too oddly in his ears, and it cried of fraud.

The moment passed and he stared down Koshi and his brother thoughtfully, waiting for either one of his companions to move or speak. Gaara broke the silent first.

"How do you know me, Koshi?" His voice was rough, grating. It belied the emotions he was fighting, the pain that had erupted in a massive fountain of harsh butterflies in his gut at the mention of who he once was.

Koshi lifted his head a few centimeters, still speaking into wooden grains that patterned the floor beneath him.

"We have orders, Kazekage-sama. We have, had, orders to wait for your arrival."

All three jinchuuriki tenses, Naruto the hardest. Gaara might have made his heart beat a little faster and given him a rather bad headache with his careless actions, but that would not erase seven years of protection so complete it was now second nature, much like protecting his own skin was.

His right hand swung around, claws extended, before Koshi's rather large elder brother sidestepped and bowed low, a perfect, rigid ninety-degree angle.

"I am assuming this means you are the other, Uzumaki Naruto?"

Yuudai snarled openly, glaring at the two humans as if they were the bringer of the apocalypse. For all reasons and purposes however, they could be.

Naruto's hand fell to Yuudai's tensed shoulders casually, speaking to him through his fingers. He pushed lightly with his index finger, _be prepared_, but rest his palm lightly against his muscle, _just not yet_.

"I…am." Naruto bit out, still staring down Koshi's brother. "What is the meaning of this?" Gaara questioned, trying to organize his thoughts into coherent formations. Naruto's eyes were alight with something strange, as if he knew a secret that he would never divulge.

Why was Naruto touching Yuudai so casually? Better yet, why was the wolf-bastard allowing Naruto to touch him so casually?

Koshi…Koshi knew who he was. Who he had been.

Koshi's brother barreled down the door throwing a raging fit, not because he caught his brother snuggling up to another man, but because his brother had snuggled up to another man that just so happened to the ex Kazekage.

The latter issue seemed the most pressing at the moment.

Glancing around, Koshi gestured for the three men at his back to step into the building, and he crawled towards Gaara with a hand extended to help him up.

Gaara's pale fingers wrapped around his tentatively, following as his night companion slipped into an adjoining room that was entirely different from the one they'd spent the night in.

Where as the room they had just exited was warm and homely, this was barren and stunk of gore. Koshi's warm gestures towards Gaara never ceased however, and he pulled out a chair nestled at the head of a rather long and ominous table center in the room.

Gaara did not miss the way Koshi's large hands rested on Naruto's shoulders for too long, and the extra push he added to his companion's shoulders as he rather rudely shoved him into the chair. Yuudai was all but thrown against the cushion.

Koshi's brother chuckled heartily at the angered looks thrown by the blond and silver haired jinchuuriki's, and he waved their expressions away with another chuckle.

"Forgive my brother, it appears he's taken a harsh liking to the Kazekage, that would mean anyone else is a threat to his um…'companion'."

Naruto visibly bristled, and Koshi met his glare with a passionate chocolate stare.

'_I dare you.'_

Almost immediately Naruto's snarl faded into a crooked smile, and he waved nonchalantly at Gaara. "Enjoy your evening snuggling up to him?" He asked cheerily, and the redhead felt a powerful urge to knock Naruto out.

Yuudai grinned cheekily, catching on to the blonde's game, but chasing after his own objectives at the rather miserable appearing redhead's expense. "I think he did Naruto-chan. He was blushing so bad, did you see that? I think you've been ditched!"

He set a hand down roughly on Naruto's shoulders, too hard of a squeeze to be normally consolable, but Naruto accepted the offer for what it was worth. He eyed Gaara appraisingly, shrugged, and turned his attention forcefully on Koshi's brother.

Gaara felt the sting of what they were implying, but he squashed down the emotions. Was it really so awful of him to have relaxed for one night?

He glanced at Koshi, who was busy glaring holes into Naruto's forehead.

Yuudai's growl overstepped any further analysis of the situation, as he ground out in his rough voice, "So explain your selves. How do you know Uzumaki and lover boy over there?" he jerked his thumb towards Gaara, blatantly ignoring the heated green stare in response.

Naruto nodded along, generally making an ass of himself as he waved off Koshi's stare openly, only sparing him a quick glance before he turned his full attention on his brother.

"Er, yes. As I said earlier, we had orders to find you, though the general theory was that you'd stumble across us first." His hand slipped into the massive overcoat he wore, and he withdrew a scroll, sealed with a fan.

All three demonic vessels tensed at the familiarity of that sign, Yuudai and Gaara openly growling. Naruto tensed for an entirely different reason.

He knew that symbol better then anyone else in the room, and unlike Gaara and Yuudai, Naruto understood the difference between them.

"Holy shit." All previous displays of anger and otherwise evaporated instantly as he jumped to his feet and barreled over the tabletop, staring at the scroll with a hunger in his blue eyes.

"No way! Oh god…" His voice died to a whisper as the massive male smiled down at him, chuckling at the dreamy expression on Naruto's face.

"This is a summoning scroll, Uzumaki." He said, breaking the seal and throwing the scroll open with a light push. The paper unfurled, still fluttering in the aftermath of its violent upheaval as he shoved it earthbound, muttering the hand sign names.

"How long has it been since you have seen him?" He questioned, and before Naruto could answer, a massive cloud of white smoke enveloped the room.

Gaara was at his side in an instant, finally reaching the conclusion of what was about to occur.

Even if they were at odds, Naruto would undoubtedly need all of the strength he could get to survive the following encounter. Yuudai was a complete loss, but if the situation at hand was enough to override Uzumaki's anger at the redhead, he would probably be better put to use at the blonde's side.

What Yuudai did not expect, in the least, was to find himself face to face with the replication of Itachi Uchiha, a few years the younger.

"What the fuck!" He screeched, silver hair at end as he stared dumbfounded into a spiraling Sharingan that was, oddly enough, not aimed at him.

"Sasuke…" Naruto whimpered, blue eyes temporarily crossing as the impact of what was occurring settled on his shoulders.

A snarl marred the youngest Uchiha's lips as he glared down at Naruto, vaguely proud of the fact that he was taller then the blond by nearly four inches, which meant he utterly towered over the pale redhead next to him.

He tilted his head in controlled anger towards Gaara, who simply stared back at him in his usual aloofness, and narrowed the deadly irises of crimson and obsidian on Naruto.

"_You bastard! Do you know how long I have been looking for you two fucking pricks? I thought you were dead!"_

And so it was, that with a rather mighty crack to the blonde's jaw, Sasuke and Naruto were reunited after nearly eight years of silence.

* * *

A/N: Oh snaps! I'm sorry haha, I just can't seem to insert Sasuke into anything without some sort of grand 'omgwtf?!'entrance. XD Ahaha, I do apologize. ...Well no, not really. I hope this chapter was enjoyable! Please leave a review! 


	8. Dizzy

**Dying a Shinobi Death**

Disclaimer: This story was not written for profit or fame, merely a tool to release some stress. Entirely fan made, it is in no way associated with the manga, anime, or production companies.

A/N: Heh…OKAY! So it's been like…a freakin' year since this poor piece of awesomesauce has been updated, but I am sitting here reading the reviews and feeling like an absolute asshole for not writing more. Here goes. *Knuckles crack*

* * *

_No one knows what it's like to be the bad man, to be the sad man._

_No one knows that's like to hated, to be fated to telling only lies._

_But my Dreams…_

_They aren't as empty._

_- Limp Bizkit (Redone: originally by The Who) // Behind Blue Eyes_

**Chapter Eight: Dizzy**

Naruto dropped to the floor with a whining "_Oomph_", his eyes squeezing painfully shut, the back of his head bounced on the rough, warped wood beneath him. He was more surprised that a pillow of sand had not been there to support him then he was shocked at the pain in his jaw, but he said nothing as he opened his eyes and picked himself up from the floor.

He_ had_ pissed Gaara off, something he had not done in years.

Instead he rubbed the back of his head to hide the more present emotional splash of pain he felt at realizing that Gaara was angry enough that he had restrained his now instinctual tendencies to prevent Naruto from getting hurt. With one eye squinted shut, doing his best to hide the presence of a blush forged from his troubles over Gaara, Naruto peeked out with his one open eye beneath his curtain of hair.

Sasuke was glaring at him, lips twisted in a snarl that occasionally twitched, fist still reared back, feet spread apart, and black as night hair shimmering in the dim light with every heavy breath he took.

"Hi, Sasuke?" Naruto squeaked out, sounding for a split second like his junior, adolescent self.

Beside him, Gaara said nothing, only watched. He seemed entirely unaffected by Naruto's obvious reaction to his lack of one, but that was a battle for another time. Instead he focused all of his attention on Sasuka Uchiha, hell-bent on discovering his motives.

But for all of their jangling nerves and shivering muscles, prepared to uncoil and spring in an instant, their confrontation ended in a stalemate. Sasuke lowered his fist, his eyes never leaving Naruto's as his feet slid together in a normal stance, and his brow lowering as his glare receded.

"Naruto."

The blond was the first to move, slowly, tentatively. He inched forward like a child, uncertain of the reaction Sasuke would have if he approached him. Sasuke himself never moved, but he watched his childhood friend draw closer, and a deep seated pain flared to life in his eyes.

Everyone around the two men watched, Koshi and his brother lowering their eyes as their master's face took on a red, splotchy feature; Sasuke was on the verge of tears.

Naruto was at arms length distance when he lifted his blue eyes and met Sasuke's black gaze, shivering himself. His arms lifted and parted slowly, and he leaned in, his mouth slack and small puffs of air rushing from him as he approached someone he thought long ago a ghost.

Naruto wrapped his arms around Sasuke's neck, and his grip tightened as the raven-haired man returned the brace instantly. Naruto's eyes squeezed shut once again as tears shimmered to life, falling from his closed eyes to soak into the shirt Sasuke was wearing.

"Sasuke." He breathed quietly, squeezing the man for all he was worth, but he could only laugh tearfully as his toes left the ground and the man holding him back all but lifted him from the floor. Gaara watched on in quiet reverence, appreciating the elation that must be soaring through Naruto.

He had just received wonderful news that not only was he no longer the last survivor of the powerful Konohagakure, but that the one surviving had been one of his greatest childhood friends. His appreciation for the situation did not quell the surge of sheer anger he felt at watching Naruto cry all over someone who had been out of his life for eight years, to hug him openly as they were with no embarrassment.

Jealousy had reared its ugly head several times in the past few days, but today Gaara was seeing red. His sand swirled at his feet as he lowered his head and glared at the two through lowered lashes. Koshi glanced sidelong at the Kazekage, he thought he knew then, at that moment, who Gaara had been describing the night before.

Naruto was clinging to Sasuke like his life depended on the strength of his hug, and Gaara was left with his arms wrapped around his stomach as if he were hugging himself. It was a painful sight for Koshi, he greatly respected the Kazekage, but for all of his rough, hard-edged shinobi training, Koshi could not fool himself into understanding the level of attachment Gaara formed with Naruto during those long, painful years they'd been alone in the world.

His interest was so focused on Gaara that he failed to notice Naruto and Sasuke pull apart, but he did watch as Gaara's grasp on his own body lessen, the white on his knuckles fading back to normal pigmentation.

Naruto stepped back carefully, his hands falling to his side as he backed away from the now grown up Sasuke Uchiha. In return Sasuke followed his blond friend back in line with Gaara with his eyes alone, his feet sliding further apart to emphasize the coming revelation. He was preparing for something, but what it was none of the jinchuuriki could guess.

"Are you two ready?"

Naruto glanced sidelong at Gaara, suddenly filled with a hatred for the way he had been acting towards the redhead. He was drunk when he'd kissed Sasuke's henchman, and really it wasn't even a kiss, Gaara's lips had simply brushed his as he passed out momentarily before slipping into a meditation that would prevent him from truly falling asleep.

He stepped closer to Gaara, his blue eyes searching Gaara's profile for a response, as the Kazekage himself had not yet turned to look at him. When he finally did, his breath sucked in, a painfully cold intake when he realized there was a haunted look in those green eyes he'd come to adore on such a primal level.

He forgot even about the miraculous resurrection of Sasuke for a few moments in time, his body coming closer and closer to Gaara. His arm dropped around the redhead's shoulder, in any outwards appearance it was a friendly gesture, a simple act of friendship that any man would give to one another that he knew well.

Gaara alone could feel the subtle muscular tension in the arm around him, only he could feel the protection, the apology, and possessiveness in that limb. His eyes cleared as he stared back into those captivating azure eyes, breathing in deeply the familiar scent, the familiar position, the realization that nothing had changed between them.

A sharp whistle drew their attention back to Sasuke, one hand resting on the hilt of a sword he'd drawn when they were not paying attention, one eyebrow raised as he studied the pair, and his other hand extended towards them.

"If you're done fawning over each other, we have things to do today. Important things."

Yuudai, quite fed up with the lack of an explanation over anything that had occurred in the last couple of minutes, took this time to express his unhappiness.

"_Who the _fuck _is this son of a bitch, why the fuck_ _does he look like that fucking Akatsuki shithead, and why are you fucking _hugging _and _crying _on him!"_

Sasuke's head turned so slowly, so unhurriedly, that the hairs on the back of Yuudai's hair stood straight up, and his spine bent ever so slightly in reaction to that one freakishly slow, yet painfully threatening motion.

"Who is the puppy?"

Yuudai snarled openly, rushing forward for a split second before he was engulfed in a tidal wave of sand and tackled to the ground by a burly man a quarter of his strength but four times his weight. Koshi took pride in sitting on the sand cocooned wolf.

"I am Sasuke Uchiha. Itachi is my brother, and I want to kill him more than you do. If you be quiet like a good dog maybe I'll give you a treat."

Yuudai growled and snapped, his canines digging into the sand cover that threatened to engulf his head if he continued to struggle against his bindings. Naruto glanced over at him, shooting him looks borne of the comradeship they'd shared the night before as they watched over Gaara and Koshi.

"Yuudai, he…well, I don't think he's an enemy. It's ok."

Gaara was mildly surprised to feel the Gobi cease almost instantaneously, his struggles dying away as he heaved from his spurt of activity. Slowly his sand trickled away from the jinchuuriki, and Sasuke eyed him warily for a brief moment before his gaze returned to Naruto.

"One last chance, are you ready?"

Gaara spoke at last, his steely green eyes boring into Sasuke's red and black, "Ready for what, Uchiha?"

Sasuke quirked a grin at him, and beckoned for the three demon vessels and his two minions to follow. He walked past them, and they followed obediently.

* * *

Sasuke led them into a small valley nearly forty miles away, but the entire group was comprised of well trained, incredibly powerful shinobi, and so they arrived in little more than an hour. In its basin he rummaged around until he found a small thatched over door hidden in the grasses of the bowl, and pulled it upwards.

Beneath its grassy retreat a thin set of creaking steps descended into blackness, and Sasuke motioned for them to step into it.

Both Gaara and Naruto stared at it as if Sasuke had lost his mind, did he really think they were just going to walk into a pitch black trapped door-protected place without being completely aware of everything within it of their own free will?

As the minutes drug on, Naruto realized that apparently Sasuke did think that, so he glanced at Gaara, once at Sasuke, and walked down the steps.

Gaara was close on his heels.

Yuudai followed third, and the brother, Koshi, followed by Sasuke himself who had stopped to glance about, making sure no one had followed them, shut the door above him as he too descended into the uneasy darkness.

They walked for several minutes in complete blackness, until very slowly a light begin to appear ahead of them.

It was a subdued, yellow flickering light indicating a natural fire glow rather than an electrical beam, and the men approached it cautiously. Both Gaara and Naruto were sure Sasuke himself wouldn't betray them, not after the tearful reunion between the two Konoha shinobi, but that didn't mean he wouldn't, either.

Neither of the men in front was even remotely prepared for what lay ahead of them, and they cautiously rounded the last cornered wall, coming to a bracing halt when they realized that they were standing in the open with no protection at all.

It was the sight before them that made Gaara's knees go weak, and Naruto held him close to his body without regard to what it might look like outwardly. Collapse was imminent, but the strength it took to even do that, the will power it would take to let go was too much either could muster, and so they merely stared, shock reverberating through every bone in their body.

Before them, a large cavern expanded backwards, and in its belly it housed a moving, breathing, living congregation of ninja.

_Living._

Every person in the room bore the symbol of either Konoha or Suna.

In the few moments it took for them to take in this one, heart-stopping fact, the ninja themselves noticed the two jinchuuriki, and stopped their work at once.

As one entity the shinobi turned and faced them, and coldness swept through Naruto's body as he stared into faces of vaguely familiar ninja.

The ninja of Sunagakure, upon recognizing the mature face of their Kazekage swept low into a bow as one, and the cavern echoed with the murmured sounds of "Kazekage-sama."

Amidst the din Gaara could hear a small voice, squeaky, obviously young, "Is that him, mama? Is that really him! I can't see over the people! Pick me up please!"

Naruto's mind was spinning in a daze, and his face contorted back and forth between wanting to cry or laugh.

Sasuke stepped in behind them, his arms folded in front of his chest.

"These are the men and women who were away from the villages when the attack happened for one reason or another, most are shinobi who were away on missions.

I'm surprised neither of you realized someone had to have been alive after the attack, there was never a moment when mission or travel were not going on."

Naruto felt sick to his stomach, queasy and ill as he swayed on his feet. It was only his arms around Gaara that held him aloft; he couldn't topple over with Gaara's weight solidifying him upright.

Gaara himself was staring in awe at the small, but alive shinobi force before him. He vaguely registered the bow, and only just remembered to bow in return.

The ninja of Suna straightened, and with the formalities over, the crowd rushed to them with eager faces and smiles.

"_Kazekage, you are alive! We are so happy!"_

"_Uzumaki! Uzumaki, do you remember me?" _

"_Hi Naruto!"_

"_Gods, it's like waking from a nightmare. The Kazekage has returned to us!"_

It took them several hours to straighten themselves out, and at the end of that first, elated night in which the Kazekage and the newly instated Hokage met with their village people for the first time in nearly eight years, if felt as if the weight they had carried for so many years had been lifted.

Sasuke walked through the people, handing out newly acquired weapons and rations as he went. They reacted to him as a leader, but the awe and respect in their voices were in thanks, not in appreciation for the man he was.

Konoha ninja in particular still eyed him warily as if he were going to burst into a boiling ball of chakra and char them to death, but their faces quickly melted into wistful smiles when Naruto approached.

It was such a delirious picture, backwards in almost every regard in accordance to the life he'd lived in Konoha, back when Sasuke had been the favorite and Naruto was the target. But the villagers who had survived were shinobi, one and all, and they were well aware of the betrayal, the damage their villaged suffered at the hands of Sasuke alone.

Naruto on the other hand, was a friend, a trained shinobi who had all but given his life to protect the village. It also helped that every soul in the room had returned to Konoha at one point or another and saw his work.

The enormous graveyard that cradled Konoha's beloved dead was a testament to Naruto Uzumaki, and no one bearing the symbol of Konoha could reject the love the jinchuuriki held for his village, or for his people, after witnessing that one, terribly sobering sight.

The Suna ninja on the other hand were on such a high they ignored most of the protocol expected of them had they still been in Suna, and they touched the Kazekage as if he were not real, and they expected their hands to glide right through him.

A few children were in the group, some born right after the disaster, others newly brought into the world. Six in total, the youngest, only a few months old, belonged to a couple that was a true symbolic unit, a child born of the pain and suffering that had brought the two nations together and allowed the shinobi of two very different nations to have a family.

Gaara watched as the father approached him, child in arms, and offered the babe. "Will the Kazekage give her his blessing?"

Naruto watched, a smile playing on his lips as Gaara slowly reached out, carefully handling the child as if it were made of glass, and brought it to his chest. The room around went quiet as every eye under the rock roof stared at him.

"I…" He stared down at her, the tiny little thing in his arms as she cooed at him, her lips puckered and eyes blinking furiously as she kicked with all of her strength, her tiny feet barely denting the skin of his arm. Her hands were curled in the smallest of fists, and she waved them about wildly in his face as he continued to stare at her.

A warm sensation crawled down his back, and as he gazed at the tiny child in his arms destined to grow up in this world, Gaara smiled at her. A collective gasp ran through most of the ninja who remembered him from before the days of the death of their nations, but Naruto was grinning from ear to ear as he watched his beloved redhead entertain the baby in his arms.

She seemed elated to have received a smile, and she grinned back, laughing in the absurdly cute way that babies do.

"Under the protection of every shinobi in this room, you will live free of suffering. You are the symbol of the rebirth of what seemed lost. You are the next generation of the great shinobi villages."

A deathly quiet followed his small statement to the smiling child, who oddly enough grew still and quiet in his arms, as if she sensed the seriousness in what he was saying to her. After only a brief moment however, her tiny fist shout out and grasped a strand of blood red hair in her small fist, giving a might tug.

The parents of the child gasped, but Naruto burst into laughter as Gaara's head jerked down, and he grinned at the tiny girl.

"You will be a great kunoichi." He whispered to himself, handing the still gurgling baby back to her parents who looked relieved and excited.

In the following days Yuudai, Gaara, and Naruto learned a plethora of information from the forty two shinobi in the cavern, Sasuke, and his two body guards.

They were a traveling caravan of people now, though the travelling had all but ceased once they encountered Sasuke, who was now a very powerful ninja in the free-lance world. His motivation seemed purely to do whatever pissed of Akatsuki the most, which seemed well in line with his character to Naruto, and so he had pooled together as many resources as possible to support the people for the next approaching winter, only a few months away.

They were settling in the dark, though the shinobi longed to be out, scouting, utilizing their skills, and so they had come up with a plan. Rumors had abounded for years, and no one was sure whether either one of the jinchuuriki had survived over those long months of waiting, but if Sasuke could find them, and bring them back, the people of Suna and Konoha would band together, and take back what had been lost to them.

At first Gaara and Naruto were confused, there was not enough ninja to support two villages of any kind, until Sasuke clarified.

If the two jinchuuriki had survived, then the shinobi, who were now so close together they were themselves a village, would rebuild a new nation, founded on the ashes of what remained of Konoha and Suna. At the head of their villages would be whichever one had survived, or in the case of the truly spectacular reality, they would be the only village with two demon vessels to fight for it.

Both boys, drowned in blood and gore since the day the attack occurred, glanced at one another with identical feral grins.

It was at this point that the jinchuuriki departed with a new mission on their minds, and a brighter future, a true goal filled with hope and life, that spurred them forward. Yuudai followed as they rejoined the female vessels, and it was with renewed vigor that they set out to finish off Akatsuki so that they could focus on the task of finding a place to settle their new shinobi village.

It was Sasuke's task to oversee the supplies they needed brought together, primarily resources needed to build new homes, farms, and training grounds. Before the men left the villagers had already started a contest, a battle of wills between every interested shinobi. They needed teachers to teach the newer generations, and the little girl Gaara had held was praised with attention and lavished with affection. The five other children each had their turn to sit in the lap of the Kazekage, and look up at him in awe as he wove for them stories created in his sand, stories of the great village they would never see, but legends they would cherish for the rest of their lives.

He whispered of fans that could cut like the wind, of puppets and life-giving jitsu, and of the sweltering desert heat that was their worst enemy, yet their best defense.

Naruto also held them, painting scenes of green trees to hide in, of the amazing techniques and skills in the clans that had once belonged to Konoha. He talked of medical kunoichi, the children silently sat and watched his tears fall; he drew pictures in the dirt beneath him of diamonds and frogs, and sadly, painfully recounted the legendary White Fang.

Naruto made them laugh with stories of the Inuzuka clan, made them squirm with the details of the Aburame, and otherwise entertained and wove the glorious days of Konohagakure.

It was with these stories in his heart, the faces, the memories, the love that bred the raging _hatred _in him, the sheer anger that so much vitality had been ripped from the world, so much goodness stolen from him for the sake of a demon that would only wreck more devastation.

Both Gaara and Naruto were flying through the trees, turning over their situations uniquely, but their thoughts were one. The power, the joy of the shinobi village was taken, erased, and nothing could ever bring it back.

But the ultimate spit in the face for Akatsuki, would not only be the resurrection of yet another shinobi village, but one raised from the death of former victims, and two of its targets defiantly living, prospering…beckoning, plotting, and waiting.

Sasuke was a wild card; at any moment his motivation could turn from trying to annoy Akatsuki out into the open to deciding that he was done with his current task and going about finding new, different ways to lure them to him. That would leave the villagers stranded, starving, and defenseless.

It was within the best interest of everyone involved that the jinchuuriki find Akatsuki, wipe them from the face of the earth, and find a new home as soon as possible. While Gaara and Naruto had been homeless as long as the others, they were only two. Neither of them could even begin to imagine the problems the villagers had probably run into trying to support forty two people.

Sasuke himself provided them with their next target, and laid the plans for their next strike against Akatsuki's network of shady individuals.

A man, (Sasuke had even provided his preference of blonds), they'd find in a town not far from their location with the shinobi.

* * *

Upon arrival they went about their normal routine, staking out the areas they could use to their advantage should a battle ensue, somewhere they could fight in relative cover to remain as secret as possible.

Gaara took the role of securing rooms in a local hotel, one for Naruto and himself, one for Yuudai whom insisted he would not sleep in the room with a hissing kitten much to Yogito's chagrin, and a third for the two female vessels.

Naruto prepared himself for the night ahead, meditating and working on the routine he'd worked out as they traveled to the city of their marking. He swished his hair, wagged his hips, and winked at himself so many times in the mirror his eyelids were sore come nightfall.

Instead of their usual attire, Naruto was at the mercy of Yugito.

He found himself walking into the seedier part of town with cut-off denim shorts that didn't quite cover the bottom of his now curvy backside, a sheer white blouse that tied off at his navel, and a hot red bikini halter top that pushed his breasts skyward with a vengeance.

He'd studied himself in the mirror for several long minutes, at a loss of words in what he'd been shoved into, but moreover that Yugito was apparently skanky enough to own them.

He would never tell anyone that he really, really like the heels strapped to his feet. He didn't like wearing them really, they were clunky and highly unstable, but if he were straight at all, he might have developed a foot fetish over any foot in them.

Gaara followed him from afar, watching over the small girl as she pushed her way into the night club. He had also suffered at the hands of the women, finding himself wearing a pair of Yuudai's skin tight blue jeans that hugged his crouch lovingly, a black muscle shirt that made his shoulders appear broader then they were, and Naruto's black trench coat.

He thought he looked a bit ridiculous, Naruto was just glad he wasn't a man. No one could tell when a _girl_ was horny, anyhow.

Together they entered the club, appearing separate and unrelated on all counts. Naruto immediately spotted the target, and slid her way to the bar. She ordered the fruitiest drink in existence, requesting as much liquor in it as possible, and downed it in one very unlady like gulp.

"Another, please." She winked at the bartender, and tucked it away with a second nod.

Finished with that, she swanked her way to the man straight-forwardly, fuzzy and warm already. Gaara was the only who knew Naruto could not hold his liquor to save his life.

"Hey baby doll, are you alone tonight?" She purred at him suggestively, and it only took a single moment in time for the man, spread out on a couch with a woman under each arm to wave them both away, and motioned for Naruto to sit with him.

"Who are you, girly?"

"Nunu-chan, that's what my friends call me." She grinned at him happily, feeling very good about the night ahead. The man wasn't as dirty as the others, he was very well dressed, had a clean, white smile, and he smelled damn good.

Their luck seemed to be changing all around it seemed to Naruto; maybe they would even get away without having to kill this man at the end of the night.

"Nunu-chan, eh? Alright foxy, are you here alone?"

She nodded sadly, mournfully staring at the dance floor and the many women who had partners.

"Yeah…I normally have a date but…I don't know. He didn't want to be with me tonight, I guess." She pouted quietly, staring off with a sad expression painted expertly across her features.

"Hey Nunu-chan, what do you say we get out of this dump, eh? I got champagne back at the hotel room, nice, king sized bed, I can even call ahead and ask room service to sprinkle rose petals on the bed if it'll cheer that pretty face of yours up."

Naruto's eyes sparkled brilliantly, nodding happily as she leapt to her feet and waited for her host to do the same. Her stomach swirled in happiness, this man was definitely a new breed for their work, and she briefly considered if they had actually tracked the wrong man. He just didn't seem like the kind of person that would have anything to do with the grimy underworld of the Akatsuki.

Shrugging it off and resolving to leave as quickly as possible if nothing present himself in disagreement with a possible mistake, she followed him to the back of the club, smiling up at him endearingly as he held the back door open for her.

Gaara slipped out of the front, sliding along the side of the building to find Naruto before he lost sight of them altogether.

For all of his worth, Naruto felt like the dumbest person in the world for several days after.

As soon as the door shut behind him the man at his side turned from the charming rich boy looking for a fun time to a ruthless monster.

His fist connected with her face as soon as the click of the lock resounded in the dark alley behind the building, and Naruto spiraled backwards.

She screamed in real pain, pulling herself upwards just in time to watch him come flying back in, all breath in her body leaving her as his knuckles sank into her stomach with all of his weight behind him.

"Did you think we would never realize who was killing our people?" the man hissed at Naruto, slapping her hard enough to send her eyes into the back of her head.

"Uzumaki, your days of seducing stupid crime bosses and killing them in their beds are done with. You and your fucking bitch friend are going to get what's coming to you for fucking with Akatsuki. You bastards should have just lain down and died when you were given the chance."

His fingers pushed into seventeen of chakra points in the span of his speech, and Naruto felt a dizzying urgency to revert to his usual self. His thoughts were too slow, and he realized with a desperate wave of fear that he could not.

Enough of his chakra points had been shut down that the small amount of power it took to release the jitsu he was in was more then he could summon, and for the first time in a tremendously long time, Naruto felt a very real shiver of fear run through him.

This man was obviously a jonin level shinobi; he moved faster the Naruto could track him. Her feet were swiped out from beneath her, and a shrill scream split the night air as her head collided with unforgiving concrete.

Gaara was absolutely murderous. He could hear her crying out, but the four men surrounding him, the ones that had been _waiting_ in the alley for him to go around and find Naruto, were preventing him from reaching her.

He had no time to wait for them, so when the leader of the group began to taunt Gaara, explaining why they were there and how they had been set up, Gaara saw it as a prime opportunity, and took it.

He shoved his sand down the man's throat so viciously it fled back out from his fingertips, the man sank to the ground midsentence, straggling remains of tissue and organ drug through his now split fingers with blood red sand. The remaining three attacked as a unit, and for several minutes Gaara was forced on defense.

He shied away, parrying and ducking, rolling and dodging as weapons of a dizzying variety were thrown, slashed, and hacked at him. At last he found a chink in the armor, and ripped the foot off of an over-confident shinobi, thinking to openly kick Gaara in his chest to throw him off balance. The man hit the ground, shrieking in pain so keenly his pitch outmatched Naruto's earlier one.

"_Get out of my way," _Gaara screamed in rage, his sand rippling upwards through the fallen ninja's veins, clogging them mercilessly. Almost instantly the man's skin began to turn purple, and his blood flow fought weakly to push beyond the sand in his system. It pooled tremendously before he began to thrash, clawing at his face and neck. The pounding in his veins became visible with every heartbeat that ushered more blood into his stopped system.

Gaara did not pause to enjoy his kill; he was already bearing down on the third attacker, his hands reaching out as if to hug the man. Instead he held two kunai in between his fingers, twisting them around and stabbing both in the man wherever he made first contact. One was embedded in his cheek, forced inwards and downwards to nearly sever his tongue and slashed into his throat. The other sank into his right eye, upwards into his brain.

The last man paused in his attack, second guessing the urgency in which they had run in for a split second. Gaara utilized his time well, and the shinobi was dead before he had time to realize his fate had been sealed.

The Kazekage knew immediately that the fight had been far too easy, the four had been sent to merely distract him, to give the man Naruto had walked out with just long enough to do whatever he intended to do to Naruto.

He sprinted forward with a anguishing cry, refusing to think of the possibilities of what might have happened to the blond while he had been held up by weak ninja.

He barreled around the corner just in time to witness the sweeping blow, and watched in true, genuine terror as Naruto's head bounced off the street with a frighteningly loud crack. Her scream sent chills through his heart, and he rushed forward.

He never reached the man to exact his revenge.

In the half a moment it would have taken him to run within distance of sand-killing distance, the shinobi froze in his tracks, horror embedded across his face.

Behind Naruto's struggling, moaning body, hidden in the shadows, their three companions stood. Yuudai and Yugito were standing back, watching in concern as Naruto groaned again clutching the back of her head protectively.

It was the woman standing in the light of the back door's exit sign that was so genuinely frightening.

The Yonbi stood erect, her hair swirling around her as her chakra flared menacingly. Black dust swam through the air, her lips twisted in hatred, eyes narrowed, hands extended towards the man caught in her strange jitsu.

Her eyes, iris and pupil alike, were liquid blackness.

When she spoke, she hissed, and several voices sounded at once.

"_Suffer and die."_

The man screamed, and even Gaara flinched as his skin peeled away, floating upwards as the chakra she channeled flowed around him, burning away his protective covering. The muscles beneath bled openly, pumping furiously as he struggled to escape the pain. It was no use. They all watched in deep seated horror as the muscle fibers unwound piece by piece, and lifted away to burn into ash. The man's scream turned into quick bursts of shrieking agony, and singled into one final keening wail that echoed around them as his organs appeared, and were ripped from beneath the unraveling muscle with a sudden pull.

Blood spattered against the pavement, wall, and her clothes as her hair settled around her shoulders, color returned to her eyes, and she nearly fainted.

"Goodness…I fear I nearly lost control." She whispered quietly, one forearm resting lightly over her eyes as she breathed in deeply.

Gaara was shaking from head to toe as he stared at her incredulously, but his attention was diverted as Naruto shook off the pain in her head and stood weakly.


	9. Fuck You: Lemon

**Dying a Shinobi Death**

Disclaimer: This story was not written for profit or fame, merely a tool to release some stress. Entirely fan made, it is in no way associated with the manga, anime, or production companies.

A/N: Lemons inside, GTFO if you don't like. ;)

* * *

_No time to think, my turn to go._

_And you can see my heart beating; you can see it through my chest._

_Said I'm terrified, but I'm not leaving, I know that I must pass this test._

_So I pull the trigger._

_-Rihanna // Russian Roulette_

**Chapter Nine: Fuck You**

Gaara's heart slammed into his ribcage as he slammed Naruto against the wall, his fingers leaving instant bruises on the small girl's arms. Twin blond tails shot out as the head they were attached to swung forward, carried by momentum, and the azure eyes faded momentarily as a wave of blackness threatened to overtake her.

Yuudai whined low in his throat, both Yugito and Joruri backed away, fear evident in their eyes across the board.

Naruto was visibly struggling against Gaara, but the red head would have none of it. He growled deeply, pushing her again against the wall with all the force he could muster.

"How _dare_ you!" Gaara hissed, seething in his anger at the blond girl.

"After all those times you warned me, _threatened_ me what you would do to me if I got caught, and _you_…_you walked right into it_!"

Naruto cried out, her voice pitched highly as true pain echoed in her vocal chords, but none of the jinchuuriki interfered, knowing well enough that in his current state Gaara would most likely murder them without thinking. Yugito drug Joruri away, pulling her from the alley with hurried whispers of, "It's ok, he'll be alright, but we won't if we get caught in the middle of them!"

Yuudai was on his way out seconds later, a colossal wave of sand hunting him down with a vengeance.

"Gaara, Gaara please." Naruto whined, her voice strained as she pushed against him in her weakened state. He wouldn't budge, the veins in his forehead popping out from the strain he pushed back against her with.

"_NO!"_ He roared at Naruto, throwing her once last time against the wall. She cried out and slid down the rough brick face a few centimeters before Gaara snatched her from its bruising surface and crushed her against his chest ferociously.

"You fucking bastard…_you can't_. You can't do that to me ever again, dammit, _I need you_!"

Naruto's eyes shimmered as she slowly regained strength in her limbs, but she could hear the pathetic whine in his voice clear enough.

Her fingers tightened around the bunched up material of his shirt harshly, twisting the fabric until her fingers were wrapped in it. "I'm sorry," she whispered in his ear as he held her close to him, painfully close.

Gaara didn't seem to hear the apology; he just picked her up, her toes leaving the ground beneath her, and flew around the building. As he ran he held Naruto against him with a single arm, the other slipping down to unclasp the shoes from her feet and left them in the street without remorse.

His fingers travelled upwards, ripping the see-through blouse from her back and letting it flutter behind him. Naruto did not protest, she was feeling far too vulnerable to mourn the loss of female clothes anyway. She did squirm when the bikini top unclasped and was yanked from her chest, but Gaara already had Naruto's customary trench coat off, and around her shoulders before the wind could touch her.

Gaara ran until they were in front of the door to their shared room. The door knob twisted via hands made of sand, because Gaara still refused to let her go.

His eyes were hooded, dark and brooding, and as Naruto craned her head back to look at his face she felt the most delicious upheaval of butterflies in her stomach at the look etched across the Kazekage's face. It wasn't quite anger, or hatred, it was…determination. Like something in Gaara had broken loose, and whatever that Kazekage was currently thinking of was going to happen come hell or high water.

What he was thinking of Naruto could not say for sure, but she was assaulted almost instantly of a deliciously sexy scene that he couldn't help but fantasize about for a split second before she was roughly thrown atop a low-rise dresser.

She groaned to herself and resigned the evening to probably getting her ass kicked by Gaara instead of anything fun.

"Change."

Naruto glanced in confusion at the hissing red head in front of her, Gaara's hands planted on either side of her hips, fingers splayed against the wooden surface beneath him, bent forward, jade eyes narrowed dangerously.

"Uh…what?"

"I said change. _Now_."

"Eh?" Naruto squeaked before Gaara's eyes narrowed to snake-like slits, and she meekly looked about for some pants. It was a strange request…

"Form, jackass. Go back to yourself."

"Oh."

With a minor puff of smoke Gaara stood glaring down a taller, far more muscular man, but at that moment it seemed very much like their body mass had changed to Naruto. He felt small and weak peering back into that angry face he loved so much, possibly because it was directed at him, something that had not happened in years.

His thoughts careened into a screeching crash as Gaara glared at him for a split second longer, grabbed the sides of Naruto's head with both hands, and broke their secret treaty.

Stars exploded behind Naruto's eyes as Gaara's lips overtook his in hungry passion, and he moaned so loudly, so quickly, Gaara felt a very real pang of regret. WHY _had they not done this earlier_?

_Oh god…oh god…fuckshitholygodfuckinghellhe'skissi…oh…oooohhh…_

Naruto's eyes rolled into the back of his head as pure ecstasy rolled over him in exalted waves of sheer pleasure.

Now that he had broken the ice with a hungry, but still simple kiss, Gaara would not yield to reason again. His fingers slid back into the mass of blond hair littering Naruto's head, and fingered his way through tangles woven by running. He bit his way through the barrier Naruto's lips formed pressed together, pain tingling with exuberant pleasure that forced the blond to spread them apart and allow him entrance.

His tongue flickered inside the darkness for a brief moment, feeling him for the first time in ways he'd only dreamed of for so long. Naruto's response was instantaneous, and he drug his own tongue across the Kazekage's lips in a hurried fashion, desperately trying to taste and touch everything he'd wanted to for a long, _long_ time.

Gaara was faster and still pissed. He pushed Naruto to the side, biting down on the side of Naruto's neck he'd often found himself staring at, feeling the strong pulse beneath his tongue as he lapped at it gently afterwards, regretting almost instantly the red blotch that appeared in the wake of his bite.

Naruto nearly shrieked as the red head pushed him, bit him, and then licked him in the breath of a second or two. Gaara leaned into him, and Naruto's whole body trembled as he felt his strength leave him in powerful waves of exhilaration. He fell back with the shoulders driving against him, his head falling back until he was head butting the wall behind him, Gaara nipping at his throat, fingers digging into his hips greedily.

His eyes were still in the back of his head when a sharp spurt of cold air flew around him, and he realized Gaara had gathered him from the dresser, turned a ridiculously quick about-face, and threw him on the bed behind them.

Naruto sunk into depth for a brief moment before bouncing back up once or twice in quick succession, rolling his shoulders into the cool material beneath him as something far more powerful then butterflies overtook him in every area. The warmth he'd felt when Gaara had at last, finally kissed him, overtook his body so fluidly, so rapidly, and shot into staggering heights of boiling heat in his belly, spreading from just below his belly button to engulf his entire body in its path.

Gaara's hands were all over him, rubbing against his chest muscles, squeezing his thighs, gripping his biceps, and pushing him down against the mattress. He moaned loudly, captivated by the energy, the lasting resilience in the man crawling over him, devouring him as if he were something that would evaporate into thin air if given the chance.

The Kazekage greedily stole his lips, and his mind, again, and again, and again. He was teasing him into a frenzy; his fingers stroking down his heaving chest, bumping down the ridges of his stomach, and brushing against the faint line of hair disappearing into what had turned into seriously short-shorts on his male form.

Naruto's lips parted as his head tilted back involuntarily, the sheets around him crinkling as they moved with him.

"_Gaara."_

His fingers found the stretchy material of the Kazekage's shirt, and he ripped it into pieces without a thought. Gaara didn't seem to notice either, but his shoulders rippled with a careening shiver that stole his breath as Naruto's hands slipped around his chest and latched onto his shoulder blades with feverish need.

He swept down a final time, claiming Naruto in a desperate kiss that left them both light-headed and dizzy. His eyelids lowered as he dipped, sucking at the small depression in the center of Naruto's collarbone.

The blond beneath him squirmed and arched, rising from the mattress with his hands around Gaara's head, holding him gently in place as he thrashed against the demonic tongue that flickered against his heated skin so seductively.

He shed the coat still around his shoulders quickly, freeing himself from its bindings to better wrestle with the red head. Gaara shoved him back down mercilessly, glaring the blond into submission.

"You don't move_ until I tell you to_," he hissed, his green eyes nearly black with lust.

Naruto squeezed his own shut, heaving in anticipation and excitement.

"O-Okay." He whispered heatedly, digging into the mattress with the crown of his head once again as Gaara claimed his neck again.

Seemingly satisfied with his abuse of everything the collarbone, Gaara sank lower, his short nails digging into Naruto's back as he clamped down on a hardened nipple. Naruto shrieked, his eyes wide and bright with delight.

Gaara tickled the sensitive flesh with his tongue, drawing back to glare at the blond as he writhed beneath him.

He pulled him up, crushing himself chest-to-chest with Naruto.

"Look at me."

Naruto barely registered the command, a lusty fog sweeping through his eyes as he tilted his head up from its fallen position.

"Gyeh?"

The intensity of Gaara's stare lessened his daze, and he drew himself straighter, staring back into those steady, deliciously dark eyes.

"Do you want this?"

The question was so simple, so frighteningly gentle in comparison with the look plastered across the Kazekage's face that it momentarily sobered Naruto.

He breathed once.

"_For years." _

Gaara immediately dropped him back to the mattress, and Naruto screamed.

Gaara's pale fingers were curled around his crotch without remorse, squeezing and releasing. The blond kicked out, shuttering breaths escaping him as he moaned in relative quiet compared to his previous cry.

With his free hand the red head quickly popped the button holding the shorts together apart from its noose, and backed away to lower his legs to the floor, standing at the foot of the bed. Naruto mourned the loss of touch, but he glanced up, lifting his head from the mattress to stare down his own body at the flushed Kazekage.

Both hands crept to the top of the shorts and pulled them away in one solid movement. They lay abandoned on the floor, and Gaara was momentarily transfixed by the oceanic blue eyes that were tumultuously churning as they caught his own stare.

He broke the gaze, and returned to his task.

Several long, slim fingers fondled Naruto through the fabric of his underwear, and he resumed his keening growls that sent rumbles of joy through Gaara in response to his touches. He bent low over the bed, planting kisses in a circle around Naruto's belly button.

"Oh…do something, _anything_…" Naruto breathed heavily as he squirmed beneath Gaara's ministrations.

He knew what he wanted to do, but before his own wishes he had a quick change of heart, of vision really, and smirked evilly at the pleading blond man under his palm and lips. He sank lower, pulling the material away from Naruto's hips, and yanked them down over his long legs. They disappeared over the side of the bed and lay forlornly on the floor, useless, besides the shorts too small to fit properly.

Naruto nearly passed out; he saw only a super-nova explosion behind his lids as Gaara's mouth descended around the tip of his cock, his tongue sliding out from between his reddened lips to clean away the small pool of moisture that collected in Naruto's slit.

"Arrhghdm…"

Gaara chuckled deeply, his voice husky and cracked in his lust, a sound Naruto cherished upon hearing it.

His lips sealed shut around Naruto as he leaned further downwards, pulling up and away with a distinctive 'pop' as he rocked back, glancing upwards as Naruto struggled viciously with the sheets beneath him.

"_Why are you stopping?"_ Naruto shrieked, breaking soprano in his desperation.

Gaara resumed, licking a heated streak of wetness up the shaft, thick and red with excitement. He fell back down, engulfing Naruto as best he could, his shoulders bunching and relaxing as he moved with the motion, up, down, up, down…farther down, and back up again.

Naruto was in incoherent blob of mush, moaning, screaming, and crying out all at once it seemed. His chest heaved with his every breath, each intake of air shallow and quick.

"Harder!"

Gaara complied as best he could, flattening his tongue to better envelop the cock in his mouth, and hollowing his cheeks out as he pulled away, and pushed back down. Naruto was squirmed so roughly beneath him he nearly threw the Kazekage from his perch at the end of the bed, but Gaara held on, fully intending to watch Naruto's face when he reached his orgasm.

His fingers found purchase on the wrinkled skin of Naruto's sac, rolling them between his fingertips and engulfing them wholly in his palm intermittently.

Naruto's pitch sky rocketed a second before he exploded, Gaara far too distracted to move away. His throat clamped shut around the wildly pulsing appendage in his mouth as it spewed intensely hot, bitter fluid into him. It coated the back of his throat before sinking to his tongue. Naruto could only cry out over and over as he looked down past his own chest, and realized that Gaara had swallowed it completely.

He made no coherent words for several minutes afterwards, shuttering and sweating as waves of ecstasy rolled over him, but as he drew himself together he froze.

Gaara was staring at him blackened eyes, a sheen in them that made Naruto's blood instantly boil in his veins.

He reached downed between his legs, tugging at the Kazekage between them. The red head obediently followed his tan fingers over his body, seeking his lips to share the taste of himself.

Naruto could barely taste the bitter aftertaste, the only thing he recognized was that Gaara had stopped moving when he completely covered the blond man beneath him, but he would have none of it.

He squirmed lower down the bed, sliding his torso beneath Gaara's raised hips, yanking away the blue jeans and ripping them over pale ankles and feet. He was distinctly proud of the sizeable bulge pressing against the boundaries of the underwear Gaara wore, and made quick work of disposing those as well.

He wasted no time in wrapping his arms around the Kazekage's lower body, pulling him down so his thickened length was within reach of his open, waiting mouth.

Gaara hissed as he descended with the weight of the man beneath him, clinging to him, pulling him down. The sensations were simply too difficult to put into coherent word, so he simply let them consume him without trying to.

The inside of Naruto's mouth was hot and wet, sinfully longing to taste him, and devoured him without a moment's hesitation. Gaara squealed as he felt his skin rise all of his body, goose bumps erupting as he shivered, Naruto was extremely good at this. He could feel the bumps and ridges of Naruto's mouth as his erection slid lower and lower, his eyes all but crossing when he could go no farther, and realized that the blond had taken him completely.

"_Unh…"_

Naruto chuckled, pulling away a fraction of an inch to breathe around the obstruction in his throat, before returning. His laugh sent a deep-seated vibration through the lining of his throat, and Gaara's sensitive head reverberated with it, his eyes popping wide-open as his back arched without his permission.

He was not going to last very long in this situation, and he desperately wanted to finish what he intended on starting. This was amazing, sensations that blew his mind away were hurtling through him every time Naruto moved, but all he wanted was to get a little wet before he…

Before he…

Naruto had lifted his head further from the bed , his hands gripping, digging into Gaara's back as they crisscrossed over him, holding him steady and pulling him down even more. Those sultry lips had completely consumed his erection, and in the position he was in, straddling Naruto's face, his balls hung down low enough that he could feel Naruto's lips leaving wet marks on them, nipping at them when he rose up towards his belly again.

Gaara was fighting to stay contained, he could not stop the wild grin spreading across his lips as he realized he'd been missing this for years, but with that came the notion that he could do this again, and again, and again until…well, until it ended.

His eyes squeezed shut as he reached down, pushing against Naruto's shoulders gently, shaking as he visibly tried to abstain from exploding all over the man beneath him, latched onto him without mercy.

"Let go!" He growled, pushing the blond away more roughly, his teeth clenched from the struggle.

Naruto slid down his cock so slowly, so painfully devious Gaara was sure he was trying with one, final valiant attempt to suck his soul out through his penis. Naruto's head was tilted back, lusty blue eyes locking with his, and Gaara, who's head had fallen forward to peer between his arms keeping him aloft, watched as Naruto's lips came into sight, wrapped around his engorged cock so tightly it almost hurt, and slowly descending.

He squeezed his eyes shut and prayed for the moment to be over, shaking all over from the exertion. Naruto finally slid around his head, licking it one final time before he let himself fall back to the bed.

"Gaara, what's wrong? I don't mind you, you know, cumming in my mouth. I did it to you!"

Gaara heaved, blocking on those ever so dirty words that made him want to push right back down into Naruto's mouth. He concentrated instead on breathing, and wrapped one arm mercilessly around Naruto's bicep, yanking him up until he was directly under Gaara's face.

His arm shot out again, balancing himself a few inches above the sexily grinning blond beneath him. Gaara was huffing and puffing, willing himself to rein his control in before he continued on. Naruto just continued to smirk like a naughty brat, and for his troubles Gaara pinched one nipple.

"OW!" He shrieked, rubbing it as it throbbed, but his cry was unheeded.

The Kazekage, now somewhat collected, sat back, his legs spread so that Naruto's could fit between his, and slowly, painstakingly lifted one leg in the air, and let it rest on his shoulder. He made sure his eyes never left Naruto's, and a flutter of concern swam through him as that devious smile faded and understanding dawned, but the blond man made no protest, he simply watched.

The other leg found itself in the air, knees bent as Gaara came forward, and he winked at Naruto. It was such an off the wall gesture, one Naruto was sure he had never seen before, that he smiled back winningly.

Gaara had just winked at him! Oh happy day!

Gaara inched forward while Naruto joyfully recounted that memory in his head, stopping only when he was centimeters away from the blonds raised backside.

"I'm pretty sure this might hurt a little bit…" Naruto came back down to reality, nodded slightly, and did his best to relax.

His cock still dripping saliva from Naruto's hungry mouth, Gaara inched forward again, pausing to realign himself with his right hand, his left rubbing small circles in the man's thighs comfortingly. He pushed against Naruto with only a small amount of force behind it, but it was enough to make the blond gasp aloud.

"_Oh."_

Gaara didn't know if that was good or bad, so he edged forward again to get a better reaction. Naruto's eyes squeezed shut as Gaara pushed, inching into him as softly as he could. There was no getting around the pain, he was virgin clear and true, but he had not been expecting was the feeling it gave him, like he was…full.

He couldn't feel the exact anatomy of the cock burying itself in him, but he could feel something large and stiff forcing itself into him, and he loved it.

"Oh..oh gods…oh…Gaara…"

The noises were almost enough to send the Kazekage into a wild hip-thrusting spree, but he did not want to injure Naruto on their first attempt, well he didn't want to injure him at all, but Gaara would not relinquish the idea of scaring the blond away after so many years of waiting.

So he paced himself, when he was only a quarter of the way in he pulled away, and slid back in, a little farther with each thrust.

Naruto was panting, moaning as he fisted the sheets beneath him.

His legs bounced against Gaara's shoulders, and he let them fall as he realized that the pain was gradually ebbing away, and he was left with the sensation of a long time dream finally becoming reality. Gaara was_ inside_ of him, he was bent over a naked, shivering Naruto, long legs wrapped round his waist, and thrusting, Gaara was fucking him!

He threw his head back, colliding with the mattress beneath him as he realized this, and his mind took on a surreal hue to the world. Stars exploded with a fury in his imagination, and his mouth almost instantly went dry as he hyperventilated over the feelings, the sensations in him.

Gaara was losing control quickly, he had finally managed to bury himself completely in the blond, but Naruto was not blushing at him like a shy school girl. He was thrashing and wriggling and _moaning_ in that ridiculously sexy voice like he had never felt anything better in his life, and the _way_ his eyes had darkened when he had looked at Gaara, when he'd opened his eyes for that one moment.

He let Naruto's legs fall to his hips when the blond refused to hold them up anymore, but he was pleasantly surprised to feel them wrap around his waist and pull him in closer, deeper, and harder.

So he let go.

He rammed into Naruto, but the shriek he received was accompanied with an arched back and a plummeting tan hand, one that soared over his body and grabbed his own cock. Gaara took it as a blessing, and pulled away again.

His hands let go of Naruto's hips, and he roughly threw away the fingers curled around the blonds' hardened appendage. His teeth bared as a feeling grew deep in his belly, something that he'd felt relatively few times in life.

His fingers jerked and spasmed around Naruto, pulling the skin roughly, dangerously close to hurting him it was with such abandon, but Naruto did not seem. One hand clasped back on the hip ground against his own, Gaara's pale fingers sealing Naruto against him. His head fell back, mouth wide and breath coming in and out in hurried gasps. He couldn't seem to get enough oxygen, but it didn't matter.

Not with that feeling in his gut.

Naruto was whining and making the oddest puffs of sound, not quite a moan, like it was cut short. Gaara could not stand much more of the noises, he wasn't going to last much longer in this situation at all. His thoughts were a jumble, he couldn't seem to control his hand around Naruto's cock at all, it just jumped and slid and did it's best to bring him to the edge of sanity with Gaara.

"Fuck, I love you!"

Naruto gasped out, caught in the throes of his own orgasm, that spine tingling moment right before it hit. He squeezed his eyes shut, a noise between a grunt and a scream erupting from him. Gaara held on as the thickened shaft in his hand pulsated wildly, spewing more of Naruto everywhere with each twitch.

That was a sight within itself, but Naruto's sudden declaration had sent the Kazekage wildly off course, and he pounded into the blond like he was mad at him. Or crazy. Naruto just held on, his entire body covered in a sheen of sweat. Gaara's fingers were slipping off of him, so he reached forward, grabbing the hunched shoulders of the pale redhead, and held on for him.

Gaara's head went down for a brief moment, his eyes closed tightly, straining to retain himself, but he was his end.

His head came back up, fell back to his shoulders, and Naruto watched in glorious fascination as Gaara's mouth fell open, saliva stringing from the roof of his mouth to his tongue from clenching so hard, and his jade green eyes wide. A sound of pure delight burst from him, a roar that sent tingles down Naruto's exhausted body all over again.

He could feel the thickness in him, but he had not expected to feel the Kazekage spasm in him, he didn't expect to feel the splash against his walls, he certainly didn't expect Gaara to collapse over him.

But he did, and he did, and Naruto ran his fingers through the sweat lathered hair of his lover, and sighed deeply. He was _immensely_ satisfied.

Gaara was shaking visibly, his stomach and chest colliding with Naruto's as he greedily sucked in air in small, hurried bursts.

It took them both several moments to cool down, and Gaara sheepishly pulled out of Naruto. The blond man found it strange that it was weird to feel the Kazekage pull out of him, but he would gladly do it over and over and over again if he got to feel the sensations that came along with Gaara completely erect in him again.

"Holy…shit."

Gaara grunted his approval as he pulled away from Naruto, sticky and sweaty and feeling weak all over, but it was a gratifying, satisfying emotion that swept over him. He pulled himself off of the bed, staring down at Naruto, who looked just as content and met his eyes.

Neither of them said a word, Gaara just extended his hand, Naruto took it, and they disappeared into the shower together, just like normal. They stayed in the shower for much longer however, Naruto was apparently just as competitive in sex as he was in anything else, and he would not let Gaara get away with giving him two mind-blowing orgasms, when the Kazekage had only walked away with one.

* * *

The three of their companions were also well aware of the activities of the night, their rooms were after all, on either side of Gaara and Naruto's. Yugito was trying her best to not hump the wall facing their room, Yuudai was scarlet from head to toe, and Joruri simply continued to turn the pages in her book, occasionally looking up when a thump resounded and an exceptionally loud noise wafted through.

She had to admit however; even her heart skipped a beat or two when the Kazekage had unleashed his final, blood-boiling cry.

Yugito just looked over her shoulder, eyes wide, sparkling with lust.

"Oh my fucking god that was the hottest thing I have ever heard!" She whined, her legs pressed together tightly. Joruri glanced at her, and simply continued to read.

She tried to ignore the fact that the Nibi disappeared into the shower after her exclamation, and also the fact that her legs had been pressed together like she had to pee, which she probably didn't. The book had lost out to reality, and she stood to check on Yuudai, who was probably beating on the walls and screaming for the two jinchuuriki to shut the hell up.

What she found however, when she walked through the door and looked on him, was an incredibly pink, but still fairly calm Gobi, sitting cross-legged on his bed.

"Are you ok?" Joruri asked, tilting her head as he looked her way.

"I…I didn't realize that they were actually gay." He admitted quietly, and Joruri realized he was blushing over guilt.

"I'm sure they did not take your words to heart. After all they acted as if they were not together for most of the time we have known them; perhaps this is their first time."

Yuudai grunted, "I wish my first time was that good."

She cracked a small smile at him and floated in her serene way back into her own room, thinking briefly to check in on the men themselves, but she did not think she could face the Kazekage now.

His scream was the only thing that had truly affected her throughout the entire ordeal, and though it wasn't enough to make her squirm and run to privacy like Yugito, she still felt marginally embarrassed about the tingles that shot through her upon hearing Gaara's pleasure.

So instead she settled with sitting back in the chair, picking her book back up, and reading it again, pushing all thoughts of Gaara and Naruto from her mind as she immersed herself in the techniques used to sew.

* * *

**A/N:** Eh...it's a little bit shorter then the other chapters, but I did not want to bring in the next plot point and skewer it, or worse yet, ruin the sex in this chapter with more gore and angst. So there you have it, my first ever attempt at writing out a sex scene. I do mean first ever. I stopped the chapter in Trial of the Kages for a reason haha, I was too nervous to write it!


	10. Laughing Death

**Dying a Shinobi Death**

Disclaimer: This story was not written for profit or fame, merely a tool to release some stress. Entirely fan made, it is in no way associated with the manga, anime, or production companies.

**A/N:** Yay! Someone has come along that has offered to Beta this story! I'm hoping we can begin work immediately on the chapters already posted, and eventually catch up to the newer ones before they are released. As of now however, I still feel like a giant ass for not updating for so long, so I will continue to release chapters un-Beta'd to prevent another spell of months-long silence since a great number of folks have sent me mail in one form or another pleading for updates, or at least assurance that this story wasn't abandoned. So for now, please excuse my terri-bad typing, spelling, and general knowledge of what is grammar, and bask in the knowledge that it will all soon become better. :)

So, an early thanks to Talentless Freak for her kind offer of BETA goodness.

* * *

_Wine spills in my blood…  
Blood spills in my mouth…  
You are what I'm looking for…  
You are just pretend…_

_-Vast // Dead Angels_

**Chapter Ten: Laughing Death**

Gaara stirred and opened his eyes for a split second. He heard a different voice mutter something he couldn't quite catch in his meditation, before letting his lids close again, and he heard Naruto's voice pinging clearly in his ear. He smiled to himself, inside, thinking that the blond was excited for more sex.

"_WAKE U—"_

But then he felt himself grow weary again, as if he had not quite recovered all of his energy from the night's activities. If that was the case it could not have been very long since they had climbed atop the bed, and Gaara had run his fingers through Naruto's hair until the blond had fallen asleep in his lap, and Gaara let himself fall into that deep meditative trance.

He felt like telling Naruto, just for once, to let him 'sleep in' a little bit; there was plenty of time for sex.

In response to his thoughts, Gaara heard the door to the room creek open, and even deep in his subconscious, his blood froze in his veins as he heard them whisper, trying to keep from waking him.

"_See?"_

"_I see him. Can you believe he's come so far?"_

"_I'm so proud of him…I can't wait until he's awake so we can speak together again."_

"_It's been so long…I miss his voice."_

"_Do you think he'll recognize us, Temari?"_

"_Of course, Kankorou."_

He fought to bring himself to the surface, and his eyes popped wide open. A hiss escaped him as his breath rushed past his clamped teeth, his fingers digging into his legs as he pulled them up to his chest.

In the door, framed by a crimson splay of light mingled in deep, darkened red glares of a glorious sunrise, stood his brother and sister. The room was a bit dark, but the curtains were drawn tight and Naruto was nowhere to be found.

Gaara did not register the fact that the blond was no longer lying on top of him, asleep, and that Naruto had apparently slipped out without the Kazekage so much as stirring.

_They were alive. _

His eyes were wide in horror, and fear. They were alive. He had _buried_ Temari, but she was here before him, that sly grin that passed as her smile on her lips. Kankorou behind her, his face shrouded by his hood, he was a bit fatter then Gaara remembered, but it had been seven years.

"Well, long time no see."

Temari's voice slid over him like nails on a chalkboard, and he pulled his knees to his chest tighter. She was dead! She'd been...but she wasn't, was she? Temari was standing in front of him, fan strapped to her back, blond ponytails sticking out wildly as if she'd been running, and a wild gleam in her green eyes.

Gaara stuttered in disbelief, his breathing seemed to cease entirely as they both shuffled into the room, shutting the door behind them. The hotel room descended into complete darkness before Kankorou reached over and flipped on the light switch.

"I know it's weird, we'll explain everything." He grinned at the cowering redhead, the dark purple lines of his face paint crinkling over his cheeks.

"You...you are dead." Gaara muttered, his tired mind struggling furiously to overcome this new upheaval in his life. He hated that his voice was cracking, that he sounded so thoroughly confused and haunted only a deaf person would have missed the tremor.

He just...he couldn't believe what he was seeing. They hadn't aged a day to his eyes, aside from Kankorous new girth and the clothes they wore absolutely nothing about his siblings had changed. He was genuinely terrified this time.

What kind of god fucked with people like this?

The two siblings approached the bed, watching him with twinkling eyes and sweet smiles as they took seats on the opposite end, situating weapons and leg space. Gaara let the moments pass, still shocked to his core.

He couldn't shake the feeling, a deep seated instinct that screamed something horrible was happening. He knew he should feel elated, should feel happy that he, like Naruto, had received joyous news today. His siblings were alive, the people he cared the most for had not been dead at all, just disappeared for seven years.

He was not the Kazekage for the relationships he had with his family however, and Gaara clung to that instinct with every fiber of his being. Something was wrong with this picture, and the unsettled atmosphere in the room only made it bolder and bolder by the minute.

At long last Temari sighed, and waved towards Gaara, motioning towards the door.

"Ok, obviously you're bothered. Let me explain."

She stood up, un-strapping her fan so she had something to look at other than her brothers face.

"About four days after Suna and Konoha were destroyed a group of shinobi on scouting missions returned to find the wreckage. Kankorou and I by then had already drug ourselves back into the village, scavenging for food and water supplies, first aid, basic survival necessities.

We met up with the returning squad, and have since that day been on the hunt for any other survivors of Suna. As soon as we were recovered enough we headed for Konoha, only to find that it too had been completely destroyed.

The graveyard in center of the city...it was obvious what had happened."

She lowered her eyes to the ground, "To make a really, really long and complicated story short, Kankorou and I, and the three remaining ninja from that original returning squad have formed a recovery squad. Our priority was you, of course, but we've been able to find a few other members of the village that were out on business, away from the carnage for one reason or another.

The last piece of the puzzle was you."

She smiled brightly at him, from ear to ear, and Gaara felt himself relax against his will. Only Temari could grin at the Kazekage like that.

"You are a slippery little bastard, kid." Kankorou pitched in, a feral grin on his lips as he took a shot at his younger brother.

Gaara tried his best to digest the poor explanation, there were several glaringly obvious faults, however.

"Temari...I _buried_ you."

She nodded at him gravely, "I remember. In fact I think the fact that you did saved my life, the sand kept the heat from sapping out what strength remained in my body. You did your best but you are no undertaker. The sand was hardly packed tightly, it only took a small burst of chakra to build up a small dirt devil to lift most of it off of me. I crawled back into the gates, but I did survive. You saved my life."

His mind...it really did feel as if it was going to melt and goop out of his ears. This was too much for him to take!

"But Kankorou...I.." He swallowed heavily, suddenly very ill at ease about his brothers presence entirely. "I...you were...decapitated." Gaara finished heavily, terribly weighed down by this fact, he just couldn't grab the emotions he knew he should be feeling. Gaara was completely aware that he should be so ridiculously happy he was seeing colors, but he felt was a deep sense of foreboding.

"I think what you saw was my puppets, or maybe an image of the desert heart. I woke up damn near the Konoha border, so you probably already buried Suna, Temari - half out of your mind in delirium, shock...yeah, I'd imagine you could have hallucinated."

Gaara swallowed sharply, still struggling frantically with himself. Where was Naruto? He could have really used the blond now, to hold him up and tell him that the suspicion in his gut was because he'd been on the run for seven years from merciless killing machines and that the fact that his siblings were here before him, alive and well, was a gift from the heavens.

Temari made sure Gaara never asked for a favor from any sort of deity ever again, "Gaara," she piped up suddenly, fan in her hand as if she was ready to throw it at him (but that was just him being paranoid, he reminded himself sternly), "we are very happy that we've finally found you. But we came here for a reason. We followed Akatsuki here."

The blood drained from Gaara's face entirely, and he was off of the bed and at the door in an instant. He could not feel Naruto anywhere, and the others were also giving away nothing of their whereabouts. Their chakra was tightly concealed most of the time, but Gaara felt a tremor of panic flee through him.

Temari and Kankorou were at his back in an instant, and the Suna trio was out the door, over the railing, and on the first floor in a blink, sprinting towards the very ominous cloud of black smoke drifting lazily over the tops of the city buildings.

Gaara squinted as he ran, the 'sunset' he'd witnessed over their shoulders when his siblings had first arrived was not a sunset at all. The sky was simply red, rays of yellow light peeking through the rumbling, rolling clouds on occasion.

He frowned deeply, still unable to feel any sign of his fellow vessels. The blood in his legs pumped as he sprinted as fast as he could towards the mayhem he knew he would find. Both Temari and Kankorou flanked him, just as fast, just as determined to reach the area.

They skid around the corner of the last building separating their view from the scene, and ran headlong into a small flat grassland that was a city park. Akatsuki was certainly there.

A wave of nausea stole over the Kazekage as he ran, black robes darkly tattooed in crimson clouds fluttering on the breeze. Gaara's throat tightened, he could smell the burning flesh, the blood on the air, he could smell that distinctly awful smell most of all.

The air smelled of death.

The Suna trio vaulted over obstacles, benches, trashcans, bikes, they would stop at nothing to reach the group of murderers before one more person had to die at their greedy hands.

Temari's fan spun over her shoulder as she swung it behind her, and back around her side, a sickle of wind shooting forward. It clipped a single thread of Itachi's hair, but it was not enough to distract the concentrating shinobi.

Gaara's fingers were locked together in a continuous battle, wave after wave of sand spiking before him, angrily reaching for something to shred to pieces.

To his left Kankorou was throwing his puppets into action, his fingers dancing in the air as the wooden dolls sprang forward, following closely the crescendo of Gaara's sand waves.

Their arrival finally caught the attention of the waiting group, and the four members present grinned murderously at them.

Pain turned slowly, taking in the form of the smaller Kazekage curiously.

"I have hunted you for years, Sabaku no Gaara."

The Kazekage struggled to maintain control of his sand, but he felt sluggish, as if his brain was sending muddled messages to his limbs, his chakra control distorted and fell apart completely. Almost immediately he was seized by an invisible force, binding him. His hand crushed against his thighs, Gaara bared his teeth in his fight to regain control of his body, but it was for nothing.

His toes left the ground as he was yanked through the air towards Pain, who showed no emotion at the Kazekage's helplessness, though behind him Gaara could hear Diedra's high pitched giggles.

"Look, young Kazekage. Look what happens when Akatsuki is defied."

Gaara was levitated into a rotation, staring helplessly as his body was maneuvered to spin with or without his permission.

In a tangled pile of clothes, hair, and limbs, he stared down at the mangled, tortured body of Yugito. A shiver ran through him, he had come around to the Nibi, and the deadened, but permanently locked expression of anguish on her face stayed in his memory for weeks to come. He screamed and struggled, but he could do nothing to fend off the control over his body when he held no control over his chakra.

He was sucked backwards, towards a second heap that he knew was yet another corpse. Bile rose in his throat instantly as he was forced to gaze at Joruri, her hair black and wild as it had been when she'd attacked the man trying to kill Naruto. She was slashed to ribbons, tendrils of flesh and inner organs leaking out of her shredded corpse. Blood stilled thickly around her, staining the grass. Both of her eyes were missing, cut from her skull with uncanny precision.

He tried again to break free, but all he could do was scream in rage and frustration at the watching members of Akatsuki, wondering through the haze that had descended over him at the images of his dead companions why his brother and sister had not interfered with his capture.

Gaara stopped at last in front of a pinned Yuudai, his limbs twisted and bent so that he was hugging the tree tightly, the tree that was at his back. Kunai and shurikan bit into his body and held him in place by sheer number, blood still dripped from his open, slack mouth.

Claw marks ripped into his exposed chest, throat, and cheek. Thin, deep raking marks that Gaara suddenly understand to be Yugito. True horror dawned on him as he realized that the jinchuuriki had been made to turn on one another, and most of the visible damage done to them had been inflicted by a friend.

He was frantic, thrashing wildly against his invisible bonds, but it did little to ease the pain in his heart. What had they done to deserve this torture?

"Gaara."

He stopped in front of Pain again, still rotating fractions of degrees as he levitated a few inches from the tips of the green grass beneath him. Blood trickled down his chin as he bit into his own lip harshly, trying to stave off the cries. What had they done? What had all of them ever done that was so horrible that fate would leave them to the hands of Akatsuki?

"Kazekage, I am speaking to you."

He snarled and tried to lash out, but again he knew it to be useless as the restrictions on his body tightened even more, crushing his arms against his sides with painful force, his shoulders rising to his chin to ensure his arms didn't snap beneath the pressure against them.

"There is only one jinchuuriki left you haven't seen."

Gaara's pupils were small on any day, but as those words drug over him like a death sentence the Kazekage's pupils vanished entirely.

He felt himself pushed away again, coming to a halt just before Diedra, who was grinning at the terrified redhead over his shoulder sneakily. To Gaara time itself seemed to slow as Deidra turned to face him proper. Naruto was in his arms, nearly bent in half as gravity sucked him down between Diedra's pale arms. The ponytailed blond did little to relieve the obviously uncomfortable position, his attention was rapt and focused on Gaara's face, who's attention was unwaveringly stuck on Naruto.

A thin trail of blood ran down his temple, his eyes half opened and lips parted just enough to suck in a burst of air that made a terrible wheezing sound. At the corner of his lip a dried spatter of blood clung to his skin. Gaara couldn't see anything too terribly wrong with him physically, he looked hurt, but Naruto Uzumaki was not prone to defeat over a bump on the head and a bleeding lip.

As soon as that thought skipped across his mind Gaara saw the flash. The enormous pulse of reddish orange chakra that he normally could not see, but now it was visible, because now it was fighting to stay where it was. His heart clenched painfully in his chest, and he struggled viciously against his invisible binds.

_"NO!"_

His voice cracked and rent the air around him, vibrating down to his bones when he realized that one, terrified sound meant he'd already admitted defeat. Gaara of the Desert, he had been a monster, unrelenting, unfeeling, uncaring. But he had just screamed, at the top of his lungs, in that anguished wail of horror and suffering he himself had caused so many times...he knew the end was upon him.

They were doing what they came to do, they were stealing the Kyuubi and Naruto's life with it.

Naruto was lax, weak beyond the ability to breathe, much less rise and defend himself. Gaara simply watched in an indescribable state, suffering as he never knew before rising in him. His breath refused to come to him, and he found himself continuously sucking in air that seemed useless, it wasn't sating his need to breathe, it lacked oxygen it seemed.

His hands clenched into fists, veins rising from beneath his skin as he squeezed his fingers against his palm unconsciously. His stomach convulsed without his approval, giving the impression that he was shivering violently from within. Bile rose in his throat, forcing it's way past the clenched passage.

But the most horrifying moment for the Kazekage came when the tears welled up. He could not control them, no matter how hard he bit his lip, how tightly he squeezed his throat shut, no matter how loudly he screamed in denial, he could not stop the tears from swelling to fat droplets at the corners of his eyes, and spilling down his cheeks.

_"NARUTO!"_

Diedra laughed, it was hysterically loud, high-pitched and painfully happy.

"Dear kami, are you _crying_, Kazekage?"

Gaara squirmed in his binds, shrieking incomprehensible words at Diedra as he struggled like a mad man to escape from the invisible force holding him immobile, preventing him from tearing Naruto from the bastards hands and saving his precious life.

"I didn't know you _could_ cry, really. That's interesting."

Diedra looked down at the man in his arms, a small, fleeting smile crossing his lips as he watched Naruto's half-shut eyes lower another fraction of an inch. Amusement sparkled in his eyes, shaking his head in mock thoughtfulness.

"Crying over this kid, eh? I don't know why, he's not very attractive. He was stupid as a child, loud and obnoxious. The only thing he had going for him was the Kyuubi, and now he won't even have that. Should have chosen better Gaara, you lose this time."

Gaara roared again, enraged but trapped within his confines to prevent him from shredding everything around him to pieces. He panted from exertion, screaming at Temari and Kankurou, whom he could not see in current position, to do something. _Anything_.

For all his shouting, no one seemed to react to him but Diedra. Even he eventually stopped talking, simply watching as Gaara lost his mind to the image of the only thing he had left dying before his eyes, unable to step forward and at least hold him as his life was stolen away.

It only took a few minutes, but to Gaara's distressed mind it seemed like it was hours for the bijou to steal away what was not its own, and Naruto's life with it.

Gaara's own eyes visibly dimmed as he watch in pain indescribable, the last rattling breath fled from between chapped, bloody lips with the smallest of sounds. Blue eyes faded into something distinctly foreign to Gaara, and he squirmed wildly for the briefest moment as if to catch the soul leaving the body.

Naruto's eyelids lowered slowly as his body shut down split seconds after his heart ceased to beat, his fingers dangling from lax shoulder attached to loosely held shoulders, brushing the too green grass blades as he sank lower and lower to the earth beneath him. Diedra didn't seem to care in the least, and he altogether dropped his burden as the bijou shimmered behind him, signifying the end of its current duties.

Naruto hit the grassy floor with a dull thud, his body rag dolling slightly, limbs spread as they fell, fingers curled against his palm as if no resistance was left in them. Gaara had gone completely silent, simply staring down at the corpse scant meters from where his toes hovered. His green eyes had gone distant, seeing nothing in front of him.

He didn't feel it as the bonds around him loosened, and he crashed to the ground next to the body of his beloved friend. As children Gaara might have simply gone berserk, but as adults, he could only take in one final gleam of the well over six foot frame, long legs and muscular arms, strong fingers, and angular face.

He did not react to the rustle around him as Akatsuki closed in for the final kill, the last bijou their group possessed, and then to hunt down the others in the world if they had not already. Gaara could not find it in himself to turn to face them. He heard the small voice in the back of his mind that said he should be on feet, bowing them in his righteous fury.

But that voice was drowned out by the other one in his head. The one that whispered to him that he knew how to fix everything, the solution he figured out years before. The one he would use, just in case something had ever happened the broke what was left.

That way he had figured out how to get around his sand and take himself out if he'd ever lost Naruto, because Naruto was the only thing left. Since he'd figured out Naruto had become more, so much more than just what was left.

Naruto had become all there was.

He knew how to break himself, and as he let his eyes finish off at the booted feet of Naruto's corpse, he felt the calm overtake him.

Gaara had not had suicidal tendencies since he was a child. There was a breaking point for everyone, Gaara had found his at multiple points, but this one, he knew deep down, wherever his soul was hidden, this one was a hurtle he could not overcome.

His fingertips crawled to his temple as he calmly stared at the body of the man he loved more than life itself, and willed his conscious deeper then he'd ever been before. His thoughts receded from reality, from afar he could feel a hand clasping his bicep roughly, dragging him back from Naruto and trying to force him to stand.

Gaara had no care for what happened to his body, his sand would prevent them from hurting him long enough that they could not break his conscious, they could not take away his escape from the hellish universe he lived in now.

He willed himself deeper, farther away from the outside world and eventually lost all contact with what was happening to his physical body. He found what he sought at the center of his being, and latched onto it with an iron grasp.

His chakra flow was something Gaara knew extensively, his work with the sand relied solely on his ability to know the innermost sanctums of power, reserves of strength he kept hidden until the most dire moments in his relatively short life. He had found this dark secret early on, but as with his reserves, he kept it hidden in the back of his mind, in the darkest part of his heart, until he needed it.

Somewhere in the back of his mind Gaara understood that he had never really expected them to survive. Akatsuki was a powerhouse of pure intent, they were grown, trained fully, and experienced beyond anything Naruto and Gaara could put up combined.

He knew that was the reason he'd saved this, because he knew he would lose Naruto one day.

He knew...

His inner self grasped his chakra line with a furiously tight fist, and squeezed it. The other hand grasped further down the line, and he pulled. The lines shattered after a powerful burst of strength, and immediately he could feel the strength in his body wane. Darkness overwhelmed him as he sunk further down into himself.

It was a strange feeling, to feel as if he were falling, but he realized he had come back to himself. Gaara could hear someone wildly cursing just before him, but he chalked it up to the idea that Akatsuki realized he'd just stole away his own life, releasing Shukaku upon them without warning.

He moaned, struggling to clear the haze in his mind away. Something was happening around him, something wild and vicious. It was obviously a fight, Gaara felt the tip of his mouth curl as he smiled to himself, imagining Shukaku playing badminton with Diedra as the birdie.

A slightly niggling feeling reminded him that while it entertained him, the fact that he was alive meant he'd failed. He sighed wearily, readying himself to plunge back within the depths of his chakra fields to figure out what had gone wrong when his hearing finally cleared and he froze. He could hear Naruto screaming.

Gaara's eyes flew open.

He was sitting on the hotel bed, and in front of him, Naruto was beating the shit out Itachi Uchiha, who was struggling to maintain his position facing Gaara, both eyes wide and spiraling out of control.

It took Gaara a mere moment to realize he'd been trapped in Sharingan, and had broken the spell because he stopped the flow of chakra to his brain in his attempt at suicide.

The surge of emotions that raced to the surface was overwhelming, and his reaction was to kick Itachi in the face with every ounce of strength he could muster. The brunette flew off of the bed, Naruto aside the bed, raining down a shower of painfully quick, hard punches into Itachi's exposed ribcage and softer innards just below.

A mighty crash resounded throughout the room as the Uchiha younger barrel rolled into the room, another blond trailing him in to the already confined space.

Sasuke leapt to his feet as he rolled to a halt, already his fingers danced together as he whirled on his toes, a split seconds notice that caused both Naruto and Itachi to flatten themselves downwards as a searing spiral of flame shot from his lips; a circle of momentary death spiraling to life around Sasuke as he spun.

Gaara rolled to the left, leaving the mattress behind him as his limbs shot out to break his fall. His hair swung downward and pilfered a moment of vision from him as tendrils dangled in his eyes. He was naked from the waist down, black pants bunching at the space behind his knees as he prepared to move again.

A second cry behind him alerted the Kazekage to Naruto's impending renewal of assault, and he released a terrifyingly enraged battle cry. Gaara's heart clenched painfully as he heard rather then saw the mighty fan fly forward in defense of Itachi, and he could hear the hungry clatter of the aged wooden puppet.

Nothing could stop the pain that erupted in Gaara's chest as he resigned himself to the realization that he would be facing down his siblings, and if everything went in their favor, burying them again. He hoped beyond all else that this would be the last time.

It was a much more deep seated fear however, that forced him to rise from his perch on the floor. No matter how much he ached inside at the thought of 'killing' Temari and Kankurou again, and digging two more graves for the former members of Suna, there was one grave he would never be able to dig.

Gaara could not, would not bury Naruto.

With that final thought blazing in his mind, he ruthlessly shoved aside all manner of remorse for tearing into his long-dead siblings, and stood to defend what he loved above all else. Naruto was covered in sand before he drew another breath, and the final battle between the jinchuuriki and the present members of Akatsuki begin in earnest as Yuudai barreled over the sibling puppets, ears high and drawn back, his hair on end, and claws erupting as fangs bore through his gums.

Gaara did not pause as he turned ever so slowly on his heels, preparing himself for the raging storm he knew they would all have to weather to survive. Overheard a piercing shriek rattled the lights in the room, glass of the lights vibrating violently before shattering as Joruri screamed to the heavens, her hair wild, black, and floating on a self-generated chakra breeze. Strangely, what comforted Gaara the most was the insanely hissing mass of white and black fur that dive-bombed into Sasori's back, slim claws extended as evilly slit eyes frantically glistening in full bloodlust came into view.

A smile that would have cowed his childhood self crawled across his lips, and Gaara of the Desert extended to his full height.

Naruto, true to his nature, was at his side in an instant, sand crawling over his body in rough, grainy scales that rubbed him raw everywhere it touched him. Gaara chuckled deeply, savoring the breath of a moment before he himself plunged into battle. Around them the room already threatened to give way, the jinchuuriki already in the fray working to outflank what was present of Akatsuki back outside.

The sand lining the walls slithered down, collecting and pooling at his feet in undulating forms that were reacting to the excitement ebbing in him. His knuckles cracked as he squeezed his fingers into his palms, and walked forward to face them.

He walked with purpose, anticipation of the coming battle searing through his veins that he hid well. He stepped out into the dim, gray light, following his brethren, Naruto just in front of him. Thunder clouds rolled over the sky as near black formations hung heavy and fat overhead. A single bolt of lightning struck the far off in the distance, and the distinct scent of coming rain assaulted his nose.

This day, he would either rid the world of the three members of Akatsuki in front of him, or he would leave it himself.

Gaara would have it no other way.


	11. Screams of the Damned

**Dying a Shinobi Death**

Disclaimer: This story was not written for profit or fame, merely a tool to release some stress. Entirely fan made, it is in no way associated with the manga, anime, or production companies.

A/N: Um….so I haven't updated this story…in a really, really long time. I'm…sorry? I have been through quite a hell of a year! My relationship with my fiancé of 4 years was broken, I was kicked out of my home, I lost my job, I have a court case coming up for being present when a crime was committed, I am living with a coworker, finances permit me not to go to college this semester, I got a new job, and am now single…and possibly buying a car next month? I shouldn't say year…I should say month; it all happened in a month, but the past years absence can be blamed on the problems leading up to the past month…LOL. Oh well, enough rambling, sorry to everyone who waited so long, but here is the next…piece. Maybe it won't be another year before the next one is up.

* * *

_It's not like I'm walking alone into the valley of the shadow of death…_

_Stand beside one another 'cause it ain't over yet._

_We fight to live, we live to fight,  
And tonight, you'll hear my battle cry._

_-Pillar / Frontline_

**Chapter Eleven: Screams of the Damned**

* * *

Sasuke was not someone who often felt scared, never had been. He was a warrior to his core, hell bent on taking what he believed was his, and the heads he had to step on to get to that point were of no consequence. It was a testament to the strength of the now grown Kazekage then, that even Sasuke felt a very delicate chill creep up his spine when those black-rimmed eyes lay upon the former Suna siblings.

Black as night thread bound in horrifically large X marks flowed in a perfect line around Kankurou's throat, seaming his head back down onto his torso. His skin was rough and blotchy, and he had acquired a girth that was now the obvious result of bloating. It was a blessed thought when Sasuke allowed himself a small humorous thought, _'Thank kami they don't smell like the dead_'.

Temari, whom Sasuke had always been a little leery of during their brief meetings after learning of her battle prowess, was bound at the limbs by the same overly large X's, bearing her arms and legs, fingers and knuckles into inhuman crooks. He could only assume they were for Sasori's control, he would need more substantial control over Temari's upper body then Kankurou's, but she could have simply been hacked to pieces at some point.

Black ooze dripped from her shoulders, almost oily in substance. A thick bandanna covered her eyes, simply a black strip of cloth that gave testament to the power of visual. Sasuke assumed they'd simply rotted away as no scars were visible along the edges of the cloth, but it was again possible something happened during her death.

The siblings moved in eerie silence, but Temari in particular was set determinately in Gaara's direction, as if she held a grudge against her younger brother. Sasori was probably just setting up a defense from the Kazekage, but it was a strong enough warning that even Sasuke was leery of a more sinister reason she could be 'staring' at her brother.

They were facing each other on the lawn below, Sasori, Itachi, and Deidara dressed in their custom robes, each one wearing a grim stare. It was small comfort to the band of jinchuuriki and Shinobi all, all it meant was that Akatsuki was aware of how much power they now possessed, and would not step into the coming battle making the same mistakes that had allowed them to overpower and kill Konan. They would not make the mistake of assuming they were still children.

And now there were three Akatsuki to face.

Gaara's green eyes found purchase on Deidara's lame leg, a stiff piece of unknown material supplying the few inches a foot should have accounted for. The blond man caught his eye, and unlike their previous encounter, there was no sneer to taunt the Kazekage. A shock of recognition ran through Gaara's spine as he realized for the first time in his life, he was being appraised as an equal of Akatsuki. Deidara neither moved nor breathed in the few expansive moments it took for him to reel in as much information as he could gleam from the equally still redhead, he simply observed, and it was truly more unnerving then being taunted for his failures in Suna.

Itachi ignored his younger brother perhaps out of pointed bating, but he was more than concerned with Uzumaki. Deidara had failed in his attempt to retrieve Gaara, but the Kazekage had lived and so he had been granted a rare second chance at capturing, and stealing away the demon. Itachi however, craved Uzumaki's Kyuubi with an intense passion. Pain had claimed it for his own, of course, but the Uchiha senior had murdered his entire family simply for the use of an improved Sharingan, he would hardly be daunted by the murder of his master.

Lightning struck in the distance and it took several moments for the crash of thunder to roll over the gathered group. Eyes remained unblinking, and shoulders remained subtlety tensed, but no more visible for the triumphant thrashing of rolling booms. It only took the first inhumanly quick strain of a knee to indicate in a fraction of a second that a lunge was imminent, and the field they were in bore witness to a destructive battle unlike anything it had ever, or would ever see again.

Naruto barreled into Sasori, and his threads of control on Temari and Konkurou sprang to life as they raced to intercept the sand barreling on Naruto's heels. Temari swept in a circle, bringing her fan a scant centimeter from Gaara's face, and his breath hissed in exhalation as the moment passed.

Sasuke ripped through the meager defense Itachi had placed simply to gain a single instant of time, and it worked in his favor beyond what Sasuke could have imagined. One misplaced step sent a jet of flame cutting through the air so swift it plunged into Yuudai's chest before anyone had even the slightest fraction of time to process what had just occurred before their eyes.

The Gobi collapsed to the ground with his eyes locked on Yugito's face, blood spurting heavenwards as his hands flung out to his side, his silver hair flew forward to frame his face in a fluttering goodbye, and his ears went lax for the first time in his life.

His eyes rolled into his skull, and blood surged from his throat, pouring out of his mouth. A split second later it scoured out and fell from both nostrils, followed by a third stream that oozed from the ducts of his eyes. His chest jerked skywards, his shoulders convulsed without reason, and he staggered out a wheezing breath that was so short lived it might have been fabricated.

The reaction was as fast as Itachi's defensive strike, and the jinchuuriki pulled together in an unprecedented formation, all save Yugito. While the others fell upon the Akatsuki members blinded by fury and pain, she alone stood still and silent whilst the battle raged around her.

Her forearms twitched violently, her fingers pulled back and forth without any control. She stared at his eyes, fluttering desperately to make sense of what was happening to him, but all she could hear was that briefest of sounds that he had spit out before the blood in his throat had prevented any more coherent sound.

He had whimpered.

Yuudai had cried out in the smallest of sounds, so slight and quiet, yet it truly had been the loudest sound she could remember hearing. It rang between her ears and it enveloped her mind without remorse. Her eyes never left his face, but her face tilted skyward and she screeched a truly cattish scream. Her claws were out, her fangs drew blood from her own lips, and she erupted into a ball of fur before the first part of her transformation could be detected. She never completed the form however, as Yuudai erupted into a span of blue chakra. His body contorted and twisted painfully as the Gobi fought desperately to recover from the killing stroke that was rapidly destroying its host.

Yugito was at his side in an instant, her claws drawing blood from the shallow layers of his skin. She snatched him from the earth and roared heavenwards a second time, her fangs glistening as thunder rolled beyond her screams reach. She was far too terrified to cry, she only held him, and revolted against the painful reality she held in her arms. Cradled in her arms, the wolfish man spat blood that splattered against her chin and cheek, forcing one eye shut lest it get the warm crimson liquid embedded in it. She only held him tighter.

Joruri had not missed the last lingering look that the Gobi had shot towards the Nibi, and she had rushed forward with so much hatred filling her small being that the earth beneath her shook with it. Words were not powerful enough, she simply stopped caring, and at long last the demon within took hold.

The beautiful, slender woman evaporated as a truly monstrous thing stepped out of her, glistening just as wildly in the assorted rainbow colors as she did in true form. It's head twisted and stabbed forward, finding only a body, not caring which it was to decimate. The body lurched forward, and the very air around it crackled as it charged into the fray.

Gaara sprang sideways, one foot pushing off from the earth and he rolled over Naruto's hunched back, which was running on all fours, to avoid the flying kunai aimed at his legs. His sand split itself in half, part of it forming a colossal wave of chakra-imbued sand that would serve his purpose of attack, the second clung to Naruto's hunkered chest, hardening and compacting until it formed a breastplate for the blond.

Naruto for his part did not feel the touch of his lover in the slightest; he too had watched the last despairing glance of the fallen jinchuuriki and with the death of one of them came the rage of all.

Deidara with his lame foot was dispatched in such a quick, merciless fashion it was almost a passing thing as the jinchuuriki set upon him, dismantled him, and left his corpse in tattered pieces without a second glance. His companions did not bat a lash at his demise; he was lame and had been left to run without aid.

Naruto sprung from the dirt, spiraling forward on a crash collision for Itachi, but he was intercepted by Temari's solid form as it leapt into his path. His forehead crashed into her left arm, and he could feel its bone structure shattered beneath the impact. Because she was quite dead however, it fazed her not in the slightest, and instead of stumbling backwards or something similar a living thing would have done, she merely raised the same broken fragment of an arm and swung her fan around with devastating force.

It sliced into Naruto's face without end, and he screamed as one eye closed permanently. Blood gushed from his face, and beside him he could feel Gaara's rage reach its pinnacle, and the Shukaku emerged without preamble. It raised to monstrous proportions, battering everything, land and living in its path as it pursued the vessels' zombie sister.

The Kyuubi also emerged; four tails instantaneously sprang into the air as the lone blue disappeared and was overcome by red. The hunkered form dodged a flying shurikan and again flew forward in a spiraling motion, the air warped into a funnel around the body as it cut through with virtually no resistance. The Kyuubi's claws were out and ripping into Temari's back as it sailed past, using her back also as a spring board. One twisted back leg pushed against her dry flesh and rushed forward, tackling Itachi into the dirt.

Sasuke pulled in a horrific breath of air and twisted his arms in sinuous grace, his fingers interlocking with years of practice. He stood again on the tips of his toes and whirled in a powerful arc, a span of far reaching fire embracing everything in its path, tree, grass, flower, and flesh. Sasori grunted in disapproval as his hair singed and curled in, Kankorou stepped into Sasuke's path without a moment to spare, and the young Uchiha was deterred from his primary target. However his dance with the flames left the vast majority of the puppet singed and smoking, limbs that had been charred into dust were unusable, and Sasori was left with only a fraction of the body he'd started with.

Cursing his luck at finding the Uchiha with the jinchuuriki, Sasori dove forward in counterattack, Temari and what was left of Kankorou withdrawing to his side. Now that the young Kazekage had released the demon in his fury the sight of his siblings would do little to deter the demon, now he had to use all the tools in his arsenal.

Itachi swung low, narrowly avoiding a heinous mauling by Joruri's emerged demon, and the first bead of sweat sprung to life on his forehead. They had not counted on all three demons rushing down on them so quickly, they injured the Gobi, perhaps even killed it, but it mattered little, Konan was dead, and she had forfeited her right to possess the monster.

"You're _mine_ you little shit!"

His fingers flew together as he danced backwards, swinging left and right to avoid the still wildly swinging Kyuubi monstrosity with the terrible fangs. Flames erupted from his lips shaped as a kiss, and he sneered as the demon momentarily shrieked in rage, blinded by heat and fire. His spine bent nearly in half as he jumped backwards, palms planted firmly on the ground beneath him and his legs swung over his head.

The small tree behind him shuttered as Joruri's counterpart roared onwards, stumbling towards him intent on the kill. Itachi's feet latched around one another, his thighs clenching the girth of the tree between them and his torso swung upwards, cloak furling as he jetted heavenwards, snapping a massive tree branch off with ease.

Again he spit fire, and the branch exploded in a torrential ball of fire which he used to deter the demon further. He slid earthward, the base of his spine protesting as he hit the ground and kicked off, narrowly avoiding the stampeding demons trying to reach him without injuring itself in the fireball he wielded.

Sasori, taking a page from his current partner directed his puppets to use weaponry, and he made the mistake of choosing his weapon incorrectly.

"Let's see how brave you are when you're fighting one of your own."

Kankorou lunged for the fallen Yuudai, and he was decapitated, again, for his efforts with a single, clean swipe from the still frozen Yugito. The headless puppet ushered forward, limbs still outreaching, and he was dismantled so fiercely the oily substance he had previous oozed now gushed, poured, and covered the earth where his body pieces lay at piece now.

The charred and broken Kankorou sizzled and popped as the viscous fluid ate at his now exposed raw flesh, and he burned until he was no more. Yugito simply stared at him, cradling Yuudai's head to her breast and rubbing his burning body slowly, methodically. His chakra was still flaring wildly, he was barely alive, but he would not live to see the end of the battle. She held onto him, though his foreign demon chakra burned her so badly her skin bubbled in places.

A flicker of distant chakra sparked across the senses of all present, but the battle raged on without pause. Naruto hissed and spit and scratched and clawed, but to no avail. He could not get within distance of Itachi for melee combat, so he forced the demon back.

His fingers plunged into his weapons pouch and he withdrew several kunai, taking only a moment to duplicate himself into three more versions. The kunai were distributed with a flick of a wrist and the answering grabs. All four Naruto's stepped forward, his three clones immediately dying as a third streak of fire winked them out of existence quicker then he'd made them.

"Fuck!"

Gaara spiraled out of himself, fighting with the demon for control. He had released it in a moment of frenzying anger, so deep and dark it had not even been a conscious decision. Now he was paying for his momentary lapse of judgment, and the demon was wrecking havoc on both parties. Trees were uprooted and the landscape scarred for centuries to come, the demon tore on without remorse, without pity, ignoring the screaming its host attempted to rein it in with.

Sasori was pinned against a massive boulder and the mangled remains of a former bench, Sasuke and the Shukaku burning and destroying any route of escape. Temari was in front of him, and he scrambled to withdraw his final puppet. It slipped from his cape with silence, arms bare and paler then the moon.

"I think it's time for a little family reunion." His lips twisted into a devious grin.

The sight of her confused even the demon, and Gaara seized the moment to force it down into the depths of himself again. The Kazekage breathed through his nose to balance himself, and he did everything in his power to prevent Naruto from seeing the final puppet playing beneath the masterful puppeteer's fingers, but nothing he could have done would have prevented it.

"You _bastard_! You scum!" He hissed violently, his own mind fighting down the spark of remembrance at seeing her.

Everything about her stood out in their battle, she was too pale, too bright, far too bright. Her hair glinted in the lightning strikes, and the rain bounced off of her skin as if she were still alive. Like Temari, a piece of cloth was folded over her eyes and tied behind her head. Naruto skid to a halt, and simply stopped moving.

"No."

He whispered it so quietly it went unheard above the din and clatter, but Gaara felt it in his bones. He whirled around, a handful of sand flying through his fingers and threw the clump with all of his might. The sand contorted into a needle sharp projectile, and she brushed it out of the air with the slightest flick of a wrist. It reminded the Kazekage of a cat, a self-righteous cat, full of itself and bent on carnage of the thing it's about to fuck with.

Naruto was thing she was about to fuck with.

"Move dammit, MOVE! She's not real!"

Sasori bedazzled the still thunderstruck Naruto with more than cruel life-like gestures, but for the rain falling on their heads someone might have realized that the man was in tears.

"You…I buried you…no…_no_…"

One elbow reared back, the fingers crunched together, and her head lowered as she prepared for the blow, but Gaara's sand flew up between them and she struck only air, tearing through the granules with little effort.

With all the effort the Kazekage possessed, he slid before the entranced man, and shook him fiercely. "She's not real; he's just using her corpse as a puppet! Naruto please, that is _not_Sakura!"

She exploded through the barrier between them, and Gaara took the full force of the punch in the back of the head. He staggered into Naruto, and that was all it took for the blond to regain his composure, and see the smallest stains of decay that had took place before Sasori had dug her up.

Her fingers were stiff, her fist never fully closed together, and her elbow bent at an angle in which Sasori could control, not her natural fighting style. While Gaara shook his head and tried to blow off the painful hit, Naruto was back into the fight with little thought as to who he was fighting. It had been 7 years, he said goodbye once, and he wouldn't do it again.

She pounded the earth as he slid beneath her legs, one foot catching her in the kneecap as he spun beneath her and she landed a hit that caused the earth to stab him in the back as it back lashed against its own beating. He flipped heels over and righted facing her backside, blood still streaming beneath his closed eye, crouched on the ground. His hands were twisted and it was spiraling, cradled in the palms of his hands before she had time to turn.

She took it in the belly, and the _Rasengan_ bore right through the fragile tissue preserved only by the oily fluid Sasori used to keep his corpse-puppets mobile. Sakura did not scream or cry as she would have done in life, and it was the only thing that kept the young man from breaking internally as he shoved a lethal dose of energy through the stomach of his long lost friend and love interest. Black bursts awoke in his vision, and Naruto collapsed to the ground.

The puppet jerked as Sasori furiously tried to maneuver her to perform a last effort for him before he released the puppet from its chakra ties, but he wasn't allowed the time. Sasuke latched his fingers around Sasori's elbow and pulled him down, his free hand slamming into the puppet masters face with a flaming ball of liquid fire. Flesh burned and fell away, the puppet master blinded and disoriented.

An explosion rocked the compound half a dozen times in a single moment, and the world disappeared in grey fog, smoke and debris clouding the air. The jinchuuriki froze each instantly falling into their mental wards that expanded in the same second and searched the area for foreign chakra signatures.

They found only their own.

::

Gaara huffed and puffed, sand piling around him as he gagged on the polluted air. Joruri's demon recalled in the next moment, and the exhausted vessel fell to her knees, sweat pouring down her face and back. Naruto whirled around, his breath erratic and a single tail so twitching into existence. His eyes darted back and forth, but he found no movement, he could hear only the sounds of his peers, and the rain falling. Thunder rolled again, and a devastating scream echoed against it.

All of the demon vessels backed out cautiously, blood and water mixing on all bodies present. The earth was deeply gashed, the park itself had been leveled, and to their true horror any rimming building had been catastrophically devastated. Wild demons and franticly outnumbered, overpowered Akatsuki had not contained their power bursts, and the town suffered.

A woman was clutching an extremely still, extremely small body, screaming in a ragged, torn voice. There were at least four more corpses visible, hanging on a broken window, half thrown through the building from one blast or another. Cracks in the road extended under structures, and one had caved in. Lightning illuminated the budding night as it descended, the rain increased to a downpour, and still they could only stare.

The woman had gone quiet, she was shaking uncontrollably now. The child in her arms had not moved a muscle, he was most likely gone. When Joruri finally pulled her tired eyes from the scene around her, she sought out their own lost one, and found something else entirely.

Beside Yugito, who was so still a puddle had grown around her knees and toes as the mud gave way to her consistent weight, was a medical ninja, still wearing his Suna hitae-ate. There were six in all, and she belatedly remembered the foreign flicker of approaching chakra. Yuudai was still beneath the ministrations of the healer, but she could see his eyes flickering in the spouts of light provided by the lightning, or perhaps she was only imagining it.

The five others were closer to where the surviving Akatsuki had been, and she correlated the explosions that had driven them away. They had their hands full with 3 demons vessels and an unprecedented shinobi; they could not handle 5 jonun levels as well.

Gaara was searching for Naruto as the rain and winds drove away the fog mulled air, and he found him crouched on the ground, holding his head. The Kazekage ran for him, one hand landing on his shoulder and spinning him around as he dropped to his own knees. Naruto's entire right eye was slashed wide open, blood and other fluids still oozing from beneath his closed lid. The blond was swaying where he kneeled, and Gaara lifted him from the earth, rushing to the healer he had witnessed.

The man was intensely focused on Yuudai, and almost did not notice the Kazekage approaching until Gaara's feet were almost on top of him.

The five jonun rushed to their leaders, and the wails and screams of the townsfolk were beginning to take shape. Ten minutes had passed since the fight, and there was a crowd of terrified, angry villagers bearing down upon them. Gaara lifted Naruto onto his back, allowing him to curl against his neck, cupping his destroyed eye socket with one hand while the other gripped Gaara's gourd strap. Yugito and the healer lifted Yuudai between them and sprinted away, the Gobi's hair flapping wildly in the lightning as it littered the night, and the rain pelted them like needles. The five Jonun and Sasuke hissed and cursed Itachi, struggling to keep their anger under point at the escape accidently provided Akatsuki.

They too disappeared into the night, hot on the heels of the others. Gaara looked back one last time at the mother, still clutching her child in the rain, and ran like his life depended on it.

::

They ran deep into the surrounding forest, they ran for hours, along the way Gaara seen Temari more than a dozen times blinking past him in the trees, he ducked for no reason when the wind shifted direction and he could swear it was her fan flying towards his precious cargo on his back, the booming lightning was contorted into her laughter, and Naruto's blond hair in his peripheral vision had him running like she was the person on his back.

Naruto lost consciousness almost as soon as he was on the Kazekage's back, and he stayed that way for the night. Yuudai was injured to an extreme extent, and would have been a mortal wound had the healer not arrived in time. They were given a tentative answer that he might survive the dawn's rising.

Sasuke was quiet and moody as they hid in the shelter of the trees, the rain plastering them and chilling them into dark, dark places. Itachi had not so much as looked at him, but he was still reeling from the jonun shinobi that had arrived to save them, to save him. He was deeply conflicted with himself, half raging that again his treacherous brother had slipped through his fingers again, half mystified at the show of camaraderie by the foreign shinobi.

Their presence was the only reason the Gobi survived the night, and it was the only reason they themselves had survived, because Itachi's last twist in the fight had been to grab the summoning scroll that would call their master, and none of them, not separate nor combine, could have withstood the onslaught of Itachi, Kisame, Sasori, and Pain together. They had been granted a single, half thought offer from the fates that had saved their lives for one more night.

Everyone knew their luck would not last.

Naruto dreamt of Sakura, and he screamed in his sleep for the first time in years. Gaara held him through the night, still seeing his sister's smiling face peeking out from behind trees, though now the thunder brought the tinkling and creaking sound of wood clanking against wood, and the piney scent of the oil Kankorou had used to lubricate the joints of his puppets. Yugito never let go of Yuudai through one form or another, and when he was moved the next morning so that they might seek out proper shelter from the weather, her legs bore a welt from the rain and his hair constantly churning against her skin from the hours she'd spent cradling his head as he slept.

The healer attended to Naruto as best he could, but even the Kyuubi could not save his eye. His head was bandaged from torn pieces of his shirt soaked in fresh rain water, and he fell again into sleep against his friend. Joruri also slept with them, her head on Gaara's shoulder when she had finally fallen into the graceful arms of sleep after staring at Yugito and Yuudai, nestled in the girth of a separate tree branch. Her eyes were distant and sad, and Gaara did not think she was actually seeing her fellow jinchuuriki at all.

The jonun took shifts patrolling the area around them, and Sasuke settled down on his own branch before the night was over, succumbing to sleep himself.

They were gone before daybreak, the healer deeming the wet weather far too troublesome for Yuudai to have to fight off infection and attempt to heal his own body through chakra, his own or the demons.

Gaara tiredly morphed into his feminine side, rented 2 rooms in a town four hours north of where they had stopped for the evening. They had crossed the border into another country, but most in the party were too tired and emotionally exhausted to have paid much attention as to which it was.

The jonun retreated to the second room, one on guard at all hours, patrolling the hall and the overlooking balcony outside the span of the building, the others took shifts sleeping and sharpening their weaponry.

All of the jinchuuriki stole into the first, and Sasuke followed them. Yuudai was laid as comfortable as possible out on the bed, his limbs allowed maneuverability should pain wrack him as he healed, and Yugito took the beating without complaint when it did. Joruri was on the floor at the foot of the bed, staring ahead as she had done in the forest earlier that day.

Gaara was openly cradling the sleeping Naruto, occasionally shifting his face into the light of the lamp beside their bed to make sure fresh blood wasn't coming from his on-the-go bandage. Sasuke stood between the two beds, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed and his feet locked together. He was staring at the mirror across the room.

Barely an hour later a knock rapped the wooden door, and Sasuke opened it to receive the news that there was a group of roaming jonun, murdering townsfolk and destroying villages not but a few hours to the south. There were still sketchy details and could mean anyone, but Gaara's red hair and the silver-haired wolf would stand out soon enough in memories.

::

They traveled as fast and as far as they could without further injuring the near-death Gobi and Naruto needed at least a few days more recovery before he could practice strenuous activity without pain drowning him.

They stopped often, Yuudai's labored breathing often catching their eyes and an unspoken agreement to halt would still them all as Yugito and the healer tended to him. If it had been in a time when Gaara and Naruto had not suffered such a fantastic loss in their young lives, if they didn't know the pain that was associated with leaving someone behind, they might have assigned a jonun and the healer to stay with the Gobi until he was recovered enough to at least remain in a stable condition as he was carried.

Gaara at some point in time would have blatantly suggested they leave him there to die. But now they could not fathom the idea, he was a brother to them in the aftermath of his incredibly avoided demise, his death would mean an ill-gotten gain for Akatsuki, and they simply could not entertain the idea. He was carried as far as his condition allowed, and they stopped when he began to slip again.

They traveled for a week in the wilderness, Yugito slipping water between the Gobi's lips and taking turns with all of the jinchuuriki and Sasuke as to whom would carry the limp body. At the end of the week he had recovered sufficiently to run a full day without stopping them, and by the time they were in the central country he had regained consciousness a few sparing moments.

To her great relief, the third time he opened his eyes he was coherent enough to tell Joruri that her hair smelled terrible, she should bathe more. It was a single spark of delight in an otherwise dark month for the jinchuuriki.

The end of the month saw the Gobi standing on his own with little assistance; he was walking in a few more days. In another two weeks he was running with them for short spurts of time, and by the time they exited the now known Water country at the end of the second month, he was nearly himself again.

They fled through the trees and along dark, overgrown paths as they raced across the land. They were headed to the only country they were safe in, the only country who knew them well enough to give them a little bit of time to truly recover, and to rebuild, to plan. They crossed into the border of Suna without announcement, and stepped into the Fire country even quieter.

The forest greeted them with lush shading and cool waters after their torturous track through the Wind country. In the far distance they could see the still barren walls, though quickly disappearing points of the long ago destroyed as they passed the actual site of Sunagakure, Gaara had not laid eyes on it since he had left it seven years prior. It was a dull ache in his chest now, and they passed it without comment.

Naruto blatantly avoided a hundred mile radius with Konoha, and they found refuge instead in a smaller community near the southern border, closer to Suna then Konoha.

The jonun with them were allowed three days rest before they were sent back to the camp of refuges from the fallen villages, Sasuke departed with them. They were to gather and head towards the Wind country; they would stake their new home somewhere closer to their origins then the Rock country they currently lived in. By the time they returned, a two month trip for the travelling shinobi, a four month trip for a caravan with children, the jinchuuriki would have recovered fully and already set about scouting efficient places to support the community.

::

They stayed together, alone in their group for the first time as their traveling companions departed, and a settling calm fell upon them. Joruri flipped through the pages of a newly purchased book as Yugito stretch out on the bed, pointedly ignoring the stares Yuudai was unwittingly throwing at her exposed back. Naruto had been as surprised as anyone else that the Nibi had been so stoically rigid with her care for Yuudai, but he had never questioned it. They were both human, after all, even if they did house their respective demons.

Gaara never left his side now, it was almost like they were back in their youth, and stuck together so fast their faces were almost one. Expression for expression, thought for thought they held on to one another with a suffocating pressure, but neither seemed to need the room to breathe just yet.

The night was in storm again, and the rain and lightening threatened the world outside their rooms. Gaara pecked over Naruto's missing eye and subsequently heroically gashed face with delicacy, but he was still a shinobi unused to gentle ministrations, and Naruto bore it stoically. Gaara's fingers would dance across his cheek and brush at the scabs and bruises still present, and sometimes his calloused fingers would rip the scabs from his skin, but the blood was always small pinpricks and Naruto needed to know his friend was there more then he needed the blood.

Joruri unseated herself primly, and announced she was going to bathe. She slid her way towards the bathroom, and it was did not seem wrong to anyone that the door to the bathroom was left open, and both Gaara and Naruto stood guard outside the framed door as if they were expecting someone to fly through the wall and attack her in the shower. Steam filled the bathroom and curled around their faces as she bathed, and they both respectfully turned their backs on the room as her fingers appeared to grasp the curtain and draw it back.

Gaara's sand was back to dancing around the walls, its minute pulse of chakra seeking any new signature powerful enough to alert his senses as it stood guard. Yugito showered next, and after she was in the shower, Yuudai stood between the two men, his back to the room, his face set impassively, arms crossed across his enormous chest. No one commented that he remained in his rested position while Joruri showered, nor was it questioned why he moved after the Nibi was in the shower.

It was accepted for what it was, and they passed the moment in silence. She exited the shower soon after, and slipped past Yuudai, her shoulder brushing his hair as she passed. His face remained impassive, but his eyes followed her.

Her hair was still soaking; both Gaara and Naruto were struck with the same impression. The entire band had the same look in their eyes that the boys had had for years. They moved together now, and the bond between the wolf and cat was fast approaching as unbreakable as Gaara and Naruto's had been.

She had come to be called "Gi", and she glanced at Yuudai once before he turned on his heels and stepped into the already hot bathroom. She took his place in the middle, and watched over the still silent Joruri. The Cockatrice container had not spoken since the wolfish man had commented on her hair, and then it had been laughter, not words. Joruri had been deeply affected by the death of the innocent bystander child, that they all understood the reason without putting it to question had not yet crossed anyone's mind, they simply accepted it as fact and mutually agreed on it in silent contemplation as they themselves struggled with the fact that they had wiped out a young life in their vengeance, and stolen several more of grown adults.

Mantras from their childhood played over and over in each mind as they had travelled, and continued to do so tonight. Peace, inner peace, silence and reflection, contemplation. Compassion, the ability to control one's self, to put aside anger and to hone their skills to perfection. They had failed as noble shinobi. They were not merciless assassins, they were not trained from birth to protect the weak and innocent just so they would allow anger to cloud their judgments.

The inner barrage rained heavy upon them, and each took their beatings in silence.

One day they would return to that village, and offer their services in the only way they knew how to amend for their carelessness. Akatsuki could not remain alive, the destruction of the town and the pains of the battle were testament enough of that, if the years of devastation in their wake were not enough, but when it was over, if any of them were left, the survivors would return.

Yuudai got out of the shower a short time later, and Gaara stepped in. Naruto found that he did not mind his shared guard post, the silver-haired man took up the post to the left that the Kazekage had left open, Yugito remained in the middle, Naruto to the left. Joruri stood apart, though she was always within line of sight. She was combing her hair out, but her eyes slid from the door of their room to the group of gathered shinobi in turn, she never let them out of her sight.

Gaara slid out and Naruto stepped in, and when they were all out and still dripping as no one had cared to remain apart and shut off by the damnable curtain that separated them from their companions and dry off, they stood in silence for a few moments longer.

"We should get some food." Gaara croaked, and the room was quiet again. Without word Naruto took a hold of Gaara's arm and they walked out, departing with a "Be back in a few minutes" over their shoulders.

Yuudai followed them a few moments later, his explanation was unannounced, and Yugito herself walked out a few minutes behind him, simply stating, "Sake."

Joruri alone remained in the room, and she watched as the Nibi walked out and shut the door behind her.

They returned to the room at roughly the same time, Yugito back before Gaara and Naruto, Yuudai a few seconds behind them. They had food, sake, and spare clothes in appropriate arms, and they walked in together.

No one said a word as the door was shut behind them, and soft, gentle sobs floated out of the bathroom. Food was divided on paper and passed around with sets of chopsticks, ramen poured into bowls and fish and rice spread out on the floor in the center of the room. Gaara walked without a word to the others into the bathroom and picked her up, she came without complaint.

Yuudai handed her the rice paper piled high with noodle and spice, Yugito set the bowl of steaming ramen before her, and Naruto winked at her. Joruri managed a small smile and waited for Gaara to sit next to her, to his other side Naruto was already perched. The other two jinchuuriki completed the circle, and they devoured their meal ravenously. Slurping and chewing and snapping were the only sounds in the room as the storm raged on outside.

When they finished, Joruri excused herself for her moment of weakness and insisted she clean the meal herself as a slight apology for causing any stress as she cried. No one bothered to correct her; they only allowed her to calm herself as she meticulously cleaned the remnants of their shared meal.

The power flickered once and went out with the zeroing sound it produces as it dies, and they were plunged into darkness save the flickering of lightning outside the window. Gaara flipped the curtains open with his sand, his eyes still on the floor as he took a few moments, like the others, to adjust to the darkness. They could see outlines and forms, they could hear breathing, they could sense each other close by, and that was enough to get by on.

"I'll sleep on the floor tonight; I've been hogging the most comfortable spot for weeks now until I recovered."

Yuudai's voice was still scratchy, it was still rough and rugged, but now each person was filled with gratitude that he was still around to grate on their ears, and Joruri protested him.

"There is no need for that. I…I do not want to sleep separate from you tonight, if that's all right. I would prefer to feel some kind of warmth that isn't my own. I feel very…" Her voice died off into a whisper, and she cracked out a broken, half spoken "lonely."

Yugito climbed to her feet and ripped the blanket off of the bed without preamble. The sheets followed, pillows were snatched and dumped unceremoniously on the ground at her feet. She glanced at Gaara and Naruto, asking in that single instant if they would be joining them. Naruto got to his feet as well, not even needed the moment she had used to know the answer Gaara had.

The oldest of them was Joruri herself, the rest were younger by a few years between. They had been children when this started, they were still children in some regards, but now, alone as they were, the sole survivors of such terrible agony and emotional upheaval, they understood.

They had all, as a single unit, lost their balance in the world. They had allowed this terrible thing to rise up and guide their hands, and in the end their stumble had cost the world several lives that were not of those whom they met on their pursuit. They had killed a child, they had torn families apart, and they had caused devastating property damage to a town that was innocent as a whole. Petty crime lords and drunken men and women that preformed stupidly in their stupors were almost sparklingly clean in their eyes at that moment.

Then, in that single night of the year, they needed each other as once only Gaara and Naruto were privy to that depth of relationship and camaraderie.

The blanketed din disappeared as Yugito's hair slid across Yuudai's back while she set pillows and blankets to form a nest to curl in, and the wolf barked out a giggle as she unwittingly tickled a sensitive area. Naruto's eyebrow rose, and slowly, from the depths of his mind, something that he'd forgotten in years gone by emerged.

"Laughter is the only medicine for some aches." He whispered, and Yuudai's face took on the most horrified expression it could muster in a time when his life was not in danger, only his masculinity.


	12. Stand Beside

**Dying a Shinobi Death**

Disclaimer: This story was not written for profit or fame, merely a tool to release some stress. Entirely fan made, it is in no way associated with the manga, anime, or production companies.

* * *

_I lay alone, awake at night and cry, sorrow fills my eyes,_

_But I'm not strong enough to cry, despite of my disguise_

_I'm left with no shoulder, but everybody wants to lean on me_

_I guess I'm their soldier, but who's gonna be mine?_

_Beyoncé / Who Saves the Hero_

**Chapter Twelve: Stand Beside**

* * *

Naruto fell upon him like a child, and Yuudai shrieked in the most un-manliest displays he would ever achieve in his life. The blond's arms wrapped around the Gobi's legs, trapping him against the floor while he was assaulted from behind by Joruri, who snagged one arm and Yugito ensnared the other. His shirt was removed without a batting of a lash, and his ribcage was quite smugly exposed. The only person left in the room without holding down the wolfish male was Gaara, and he was so saturated with exhaustion that is only borne of agony that he too joined in on the pretend massacre.

His sand collected from a portion of the wall and twisted into the shape of his hand, which he held in the air for the squirming Yuudai to see quite clearly. Shouts of giggles erupted from the gathered shinobi as he quirked his finger and the sand-hand reacted in time, one finger lightly sweeping over the slightly protruding bones of the muscular but currently powerless jinchuuriki.

"Stop! Stop! I surrender! _Ohmygodstopitcan'tbreathe_!"

Yugito giggled mercilessly as the Gobi writhed beneath her, twisting and squirming, his hair flying wildly and ears jerking sporadically as his body tried to figure out a way to express the sensations. He was released when his breath truly became labored, and he languished on the floor in between the group, gasping for air.

"You! You teamed with them against me!" He pointed an accusing finger at Gaara, his eyes wide in astonishment that it was technically Gaara that did the tickling. The Kazekage's eyes grew enormous as predatory gleams shone in all eyes sent his way, and his smile evaporated instantaneously. His hands shot up to defend himself but he was overpowered just as easily, and he cried out indignantly when his own lover proceeded to tickle him, quite literally, pink. Gaara's only soft spot was the small protrusion that housed his belly button, and Naruto was relentless in his pursuit. Yuudai in particular took great delight in holding down the bony man, and he grinned like a fool as Gaara fought with himself to not laugh. It was an impossible task.

Naruto, when it was his turn, found himself tipped upside down on the bed, his feet in the air and his arms pinned at his sides by Gaara's sand, a loosely formed 'coffin' technique that ensured he was stuck fast quite nicely. He squealed and howled as each shinobi took turns tickling his feet until he thought he might pee himself.

They collapsed together in a giggling fight on the ground, and the women were spared their own turns of delightful, tickling torture for the simple reason that no one knew where those particular areas might lie.

The laughter died away slowly, each one mourning its absence as it petered away, and gave way again to the darker, more oppressive thoughts. They had a small village worth of people to find a suitable place to inhabit, they still had 4 living members of Akatsuki to find and destroy, and the death of the child was still fresh on each mind.

The blankets and pillows which had been so neatly arranged were in disarray, but they settled among them as best as they could. A strange atmosphere had descended in the small room. It took them a while to figure out what was happening, but one by one they understood it in their own terms.

They were afraid. They had nearly lost Yuudai, Naruto had lost one eye, Gaara had lost control of his demon, and Yugito had a weakness she didn't know she had. If she had participated in the battle perhaps the outcome would have been different. Maybe she would have been the tipping factor, but she had been locked in rigidly unforgiving fear that Yuudai was dying. She knew he was dying. She was staring at his face.

She was covered in the blood he'd gurgled up; her face was still dripping with it. Or was that the rain? His chakra had exploded before she reached him, and for the first few moments she didn't even feel it. All she could see was his blood, all she could hear was his whimper; it was a devastating sound that had filled her with guilt and pain that he had taken the hit, not her.

In truth there was nothing she could have done to prevent it; he had been in its path, not her. It had been too fast to even think about, much less react to, but it had nonetheless done its job, and had incapacitated two of the jinchuuriki for the battle. Her face dropped its serenity, and she was again kneeling in the mud, cradling him.

Her lips moved in silence, but she attracted the attention of the others as if she were shouting at them. She had been talking to him, it hadn't even been a conscious thing, but she'd been talking to him then, while he lay dying in her arms. She could recall with vivid clarity now what she had said to him.

"You're okay. You're okay! Look! The rain is washing everything away; the sun's coming out soon. We're gonna go down to the river and fight and you're going to tell me I have wire-brush hair and I'm going to say your sickly and thin, not at all as buff as you think you are."

Her tears mingled in the rain, the thunder drowned out her words, but she continued on as if she was born to be there, and say those words to him as his life drew to an end.

"You're okay, you know? Really, I wouldn't lie to you. I…you're okay. Yuudai?"

She shifted him the slightest bit and it was then that she felt the heat of chakra seep into her hands and forearms, she felt the first crack of pain, but it did nothing to deter her.

"Yuudai. Yuudai look at me. Yuudai! You're really okay. The blood is drying up already. Look how foolish you are lying there in the mud while everyone else is fighting."

Lightning struck and shuttered, she rocked with him as Gaara lost his temper and lost control of his demon, how she remembered that she did not know, she didn't recognize it then, but now it came clearly to her. She could see it soar upwards, blotting out a few streaks of lightning as the storm rolled on.

"Yuudai! Damn you put on weight didn't you! Look! My hands are trembling from just supporting your head! Fat head! I'm sorry, that's not funny right now, is it? It'll be funny in a little while, when you feel good enough to laugh. It won't take long at all. We'll just put a band-aid on that and you'll be right as rain, Yuudai."

Her shoulders heaved and rocked as her words began to slur and meld together. He was slipping; she could feel his chakra, and she could feel the burn lessening.

"Oh Yuudai…look what you got yourself into! Why were you looking at me, anyways? You goofball of a man, you should have been looking at them! Even in the face of the enemy you are looking at breasts and butts, aren't you! You foolish, foo…f…oh, Yuudai."

She whined and pleaded with him, she begged him, she prayed for him, she bribed, and behind it all she knew she was being foolish.

"Please, you can't leave me, you know? We were just starting to get along. I was just starting to fall for those pretty eyes, especially the black one. It's all dark and mysterious, and I'm not really one for pretty like the blue one, but the black one… you wink with the wrong eye, you know? If you had winked at me like you wink at the women in town you play with I might have been tempted to play with you, too."

Her lips drew back in a spasm as she cried harder, he was growing still.

"You can't go yet! You can't go yet! Yuudai! Yuudai you can't! Listen to me!"

She forgot the memory and dove out of her remembrance as the shinobi that had saved his life had barreled into her. She was still mumbling, tears were still falling down her cheeks, her shoulders were shaking and she was cradling a pillow. Her chest and stomach heaved as wracking sobs tore through her, and she realized that the memory was false.

The medical ninja had not barreled into her at all; he had spun around her and dropped to his knees, already at work on preserving the chakra in the dying man's body. The impact she felt had been in reality, and she snapped to it like a waking dream.

She realized with a start that she wasn't in the rain at all, her hair was just wet. It was dark and it was lightning, but that was outside. She was inside, and Gaara and Naruto were inches away from her, and Joruri was kissing her forehead and holding her face so tenderly, but what struck her the hardest was the massive, firm arms around her own.

Yuudai himself was behind her; he was the presence she felt collide with her body, and she could still hear her last audible scream as it echoed away, her last cry to him. She was crushed against his chest; her head pulled forward as Joruri lavished her in soft, feminine lips and carefully placed kisses. Joruri's hair mingled with her own on her face, and she could faintly see the outline of Gaara's head as it lowered through the curtain.

His chest rumbled a fraction of a second before his voice came out, and he was talking to her like she'd been talking to him. "It's okay, I'm right here. Gi, I'm right here, see? Feel me? I'm right here."

His hands were everywhere, on her stomach, her shoulders, her arms, her legs, her neck, her hair. He was touching every inch of her frantically, trying to break the trance she'd slipped into in their private meditations. Her terrified whispers were quiet at first, and then she started talking like they were on the field, louder than usual because she was trying to make him hear her over the noise of the storm and the battle behind them.

"Please, please come back. I'm right here! I never went anywhere! You held me all night and all week and you never let go, I'm right here. You didn't let me leave, okay? Gi, please come back!"

Her shoulders stilled gradually, and he realized that she was aware again. Joruri pulled away from her, one last lingering kiss on her cheek before the sweet smelling hair lifted and her face drifted away. Tears still splashed down her cheek, and her lips pursed and pushed out again as she fought back her own sadness, chin quivering in dimpled fashions only suitable for someone truly about to break down.

Yugito shifted against his chest, her spine was being crushed truthfully, but he was a powerful ninja, and she was no less; she only wanted to get closer to him, spine-crushing be damned. He recognized the action for what it was, and he pulled her back, her shoulders planted against one arm as he spun her to the side. She only wanted to see his eyes, she wanted to see that pretty black eye that had played tricks on her since the moment she'd met him.

He didn't give her that small request, but she could feel the moisture on his own cheeks, or maybe it was her own that his skin was pushing around as he pressed against her, but did it really matter? She could feel his heart beat thrumming in his chest, it was rapid and intense, and he was reacting even if he wasn't crying. She just wanted to see his eyes!

His now free arm shot out and grasped her face by chin and cheek bone, his large hand covering nearly half of her face. His thumb pushed against her jaw line, index finger resting below her eye, the remaining fingers curled against her lips.

"I'm right here, Yugito. I'm right here, just 'cause you told me I couldn't leave, you _bossy_ little woman. Who told you that you could tell a man when he can and cannot die?"

She sputtered out a half-laugh, half-sob, and his nose descended to nuzzle against her cheek as his rough, calloused fingers splayed out over the side of her neck. He wasted little time in between his ministrations; he knew she'd gone beyond caring for him in the trek back, but he had not known how far. There had been no time for conversation; he'd been out of it for the vast majority of the travel time, and he still had more to learn about the experience.

He was not however, stupid, nor was he foolish. The words pouring out of her mouth when she'd gone into that dark place were not the words of a woman stuck with a man she despised. Yugito had been genuinely terrified that he was dying. She had tried to calm him as he felt his soul leaving his body, she had been the fuzzy face above him, the warmth around him, and she had been the one holding him as he sputtered a goodbye and spit blood all over her pretty face.

Those were not the actions of an acquaintance. Those were the actions of a loved one, belatedly realized or not. His index finger trailed across the high bone of her cheek, and he swept down. Her breath caught in her throat, she relaxed at the same time as she tensed, and her eyes fluttered down without prompting.

His lips ground over hers. He was truly part wolf on some level, and she reveled in it. Her hands came up and cradled his bent head, and his hands slipped from her face to nestle her closer to his chest. It couldn't be physically accomplished but he went through the motions anyways. It comforted them both to know they needed to be closer.

Naruto was quiet as Gaara tilted into him, but he could see the underlying need. This was not a time for personal relationships, and this was not a time for romance. Gi and Yuudai were clinging to one another on that same scale, that same indefinable grasp for air that was their only source of comfort. It was not an act of passion that drove them together, nor was it a sudden realization that the person you fight with is the person you think you might want tremendous sex with.

This was something primal.

He scooted forward, Gaara left behind temporarily, but he was not forgotten. Instead Naruto's fingers wrapped around Joruri's wrists, and her hands rose as she shielded her face from view and sobbed into her palms. He lowered her delicate hands and drew her into him. She came again without protest, and her head slipped past his cheek as she dropped onto his shoulder. Naruto cradled her as gently as he could, his fingertips barely skimming over her shoulder blades and the curve of her back as she came to him.

Gaara also crept closer as their circle's circumference decreased, inch by inch, touch by touch. Joruri's sobs were quiet, but they were powerful. She alone had kept silent while they had expressed their angst and torment when the bickered. She had held herself in serenity and calmness while they had clawed and snapped at one another. If she chose now to fall to pieces, she was perfectly within reason. Gaara's hands slid around her waist, his narrow, long fingers slid a partial inch down the fabric of her cloth pants to grip the flesh of her hips, and he lifted her into his lap. She was strewn across them awkwardly, but no one seemed to mind. Her legs hung over Gaara's thighs, her feet tucked into one another beneath a pillow. Naruto lowered his torso to better accommodate her natural spinal curvature, and they wound up with Naruto on his stomach, Joruri's torso lying across his back, her arms folded beneath her chin as she quietly wept.

Gaara ran his hands down her back in slow, steady motions. The rhythm eased her unsteady breathing, and she quieted altogether as Yugito slid around between Yuudai's legs, making out the general shape of the lump they had become. She smiled tentatively and slid forward, lying her head in Gaara's lap, and Naruto took the opportunity to stroke an ankle she presented in front of him. Yuudai was cut off from them for a moment, still clinging to a half existent tendril of fear about showing any sort of emotion in front of the other men, but he dropped it almost as quickly as he grabbed it.

He chose a forgotten pillow and crawled behind Gaara to the other side. He set the pillow behind him, propping it against the wooden dresser set against the wall. His lower back settled, nestled into the soft fabric. His legs swung out to stretch towards the door, and he lay on the floor with them. Gaara watched him situate himself, and in a moment of genuine, tender compassion, he grasped one of Gi's wrists, and carried it across the second portion of his lap, over Joruri's hip. She let it fall at his direction, and Gaara slowly reached out to pick up Yuudai's. The Gobi was completely silent as he allowed his hand to be swept out and fall atop Yugito's. Gaara's hand rested atop them both.

The lightning flashed outside again and again, and it lit the room at its own timing, but they were quiet, and for that small piece of time, they were at peace.

::

At the break of dawn Gaara's eyes slid open softly. The room was still mostly blanketed in darkness, but he could easily pick out who was where. Naruto had shifted in the night, and was now curled in, Joruri's stomach against his back, one leg over his hip, the other lying on the floor. Yugito was almost entirely in his lap, her blond hair strewn across his legs and one hand resting on his knee. The other was under her, pressed into his ankle and lying on the floor. He smiled wistfully realizing that the hand on his knee was still attached to Yuudai's by a single finger.

Gaara's own hands rested on her head and neck respectively, he had fallen into his meditation stroking her hair late into the night. Yuudai was strung out between them, his wild, silver hair spewed out under him. His ears twitched in his sleep, Joruri's cheek was pressed into one of his pectorals, and Gaara wondered briefly if she had drooled in her sleep.

The Kazekage breathed in serenely, regretting having to leave the scene. He knew it was something that was born of agony of exhaustion, they would soon return to their normal bickering with one another, but for the moment it was the picture of peace and he was pained to let it go. He decided that he would let it linger for a while longer, and slipped out as easily as he could from beneath Yugito's weight. She protested slightly, but he was not a ninja for the hell of it; he slipped out without waking her. For the first time in his life, Gaara was without his sand. He left it on the walls of the room as he walked out of the building, and it left him feeling tremendously cold and vulnerable, but exhilarated that he even had a reason to leave it behind.

Quite frankly the four sleeping shinobi he had left behind were more precious to him in that peaceful singular morning that he would remember, than his own life was. He experienced then what it meant to feel 'light of step'. This was not a trained thing, he was quick on his feet and silent as death, but he was not light of step, not ever. Today he was buoyed by the emotions that filled him with love and joy, but they in themselves were not exuberant things full of energy or bubbling over with excitement.

They were calm, they were peaceful, and they brought with them a razor sharp clarity of the beauty of the world around him that he didn't reach on normal days. He made it down to the small shopping district just as the shop keepers themselves arrived, and he waited patiently as they opened their small vendor stalls and set their wares out for viewing pleasure.

He purchased food, and momentarily toyed with the idea of buying something for the people behind at the inn, but decided against it. It was a night to be treasured surely, but repaying its joyous happening with petty trinkets was not only wasteful of his monetary resources, but it would seem like he was putting a price tag on the affection shared the night before. That was a crime unto itself.

When he returned, hardly an hour after his departure, he opened the door to find all of his companions wide awake and skittish. All eyes were on the door as it swung forward, and Gaara found himself the victim of truly terrified stares. He gazed back calmly, ever so slightly raising the hand that carried the bags of purchased food.

"I just went to get breakfast."

Joruri smiled at him softly, her eyes twinkling as she accepted his vague apology for leaving them without saying a word. It escaped no one that he had left his sand to guard them, and ventured into the world without. Naruto was boggled, but like Gaara, he felt the peace of the night before swell in him, and he did not wish to force it away by mulling over the danger his lover had put himself in.

He was fine, he was back with them, and that made everything okay for the moment.

The passing night did not erase the tenderness between them however, and the morning trickled away as Yuudai fed Yugito, Joruri prepared Gaara's meal with as much tender affection as a new bride preparing the first meal for her spouse, and Naruto gave Gaara a shoulder massage as he ate for simply existing. Sunlight poured its delicate rays through the slightly open window, and laughter was easy, but soft.

Yugito teased Naruto with the last of the fish; he was lying on his back on the floor, she lying on one hand while the other waved a pair of chopsticks firmly holding the final piece in the air above him, a gentle smile on her lips.

Yuudai and Gaara cleaned the dishes together, and Joruri languished on the bed next to Yugito, staring in content at the ceiling. When at last he had staked his claim and gobbled up with fiendish delight the last piece of fish, Naruto took the offered hand by Yuudai, and pulled himself to his feet. Slowly the day eased into afternoon, and they began to slip back into themselves.

Weapons were sharpened and packed with skill and ease. Clothing was tightened, belts buckled, sandals and boots strapped down, hair tied back, muscles stretched and rippling through all. There was however, an atmosphere remnant of their night that would remain for years to come. When Naruto asked for the grinder to take his turn in sharpening his set of kunai, it didn't come from Gaara. Yugito tossed her own to him without question, and he caught it like he expected it would come from that direction.

Joruri's hair was braided and plaited also by the Nibi, and Yuudai brushed her bangs out of her face as he passed to use the restroom. Gaara's gourd was lifted from the ground and set against him by the Yonbi; she tugged it firmly into place for him and patted him on the shoulder. They left the room before they had to pay for a second night, and the entire band waited around the door as Naruto slipped into his feminine form and paid the attendant.

They left together, headed for the forest rimming the small village. They stopped as the sun began to dip behind the tree lines, still plenty of daylight but with enough distance to ensure no one might have followed them out of the village. They found a suitable hollow to set camp up; packs unfurled and tents were pitched in the bows of trees. A fire was built, though no food was captured or snared. Instead they hunkered down around several sheets of paper Naruto withdrew from his pack, and set about strategizing.

"Konoha and Suna were allied nations, but they are not one. I doubt the daimyo of either country would truly allow a single village to supply both sides with shinobi. That would require them to merge, and that's an idealistic fancy."

Naruto nodded as Gaara spoke, his eyes flickering back and forth across the maps splayed out before the small group. "But right now, our goal is to figure out where a suitable location is to support these shinobi. Politics be damned."

"We'll need a water source, plenty of wood supply, or at least a means to transport the construction material to build shelter. We need access to food; meats and vegetables but if we can't find both, one will have to suffice. Land will have to be cleared if we choose a place in the Fire country; if we choose something in the Wind, we'll have to decide on different sources.

"The heat will kill anything without shelter in a matter of days. Sunburns are negotiable for the adults and can be prevented with the proper clothing, but heat exhaustion will tire and eventually kill the children, any elderly and injured in a severely reduced amount of time then it will a strong, grown person."

Joruri nodded as well as she listened to him recount the necessities, but she took a different route. "We will need to be very select in the place we choose. Politics be damned is its own issue, but you have remnants of both nations, neither will be happy to leave its country behind. They may be shinobi, but these people were born and raised in reverence to their respective habitats.

"Ninja of the Fire country will come to hate and despise the heat of the desert; it may lead to bloodshed if it is bad enough. This is a way of life they simply were not given time to accustom to; they would be forced into it. The same can be said of the Suna shinobi, they were born into the desert and were trained how to survive in the sands. If you put them in the middle of a lush forest they may lose their bearings unable to see the stars; they won't know which plants are edible and which are poison. The cool air may tamper with their immune systems, and it will bring illness to those who are not familiar with it.

"Truly we have to find a place that can meet both standards as much as possible."

Yugito watched Naruto's finger track south across the borders to a small curve in the boundary line between the two nations.

It jet inwards by the legend's standards of two hundred miles, as if someone had taken an enormous spoon and scooped out a piece of the Fire country. It was bordered by foothills, small on the map but miniscule mountains in their own right to the north and east; to the south the thick forests of the Fire country ringed it. The western access point was dotted and slashed to indicate desert landscape.

There were no visible signs on the map of a water source, but that just meant there was no noticeable lake or river of particular girth, the might find smaller sources that could sustain the group until they were able to reroute a nearby stream to supply a steady flow. The forest that bordered its southern edge would supply the wood for construction, and Gaara informed them that it used to be a base for a rogue band of shinobi, but they had long since been driven from it.

A destination in hand, they spent the night tossing ideas back and forth, weighing the pros and cons of this location. Gaara thought it was decent enough, but he was worried about the bordering forest. If they were attacked before they could clear the land and build fortified walls the not-yet-born village would be susceptible to destruction, and truly their very presence, _five_ jinchuuriki, was enough to summon the world's wrath upon them if they were caught unawares.

Joruri was immensely worried about how they might direct any nearby river without alerting anyone to their presence, it would require explosions and many weeks of labor steering a water flow to them that carried enough to sustain the population. She pointed out quite frankly that they would not stay forty-or-so shinobi for long; even at their departure another pregnancy had been announced. That in itself was a problem; they would have to construct houses ample enough to house the mother and child in record speed at the very least. They might be on the border of the Fire country, but the location was marked to look like desert for a reason.

Yugito and Yuudai tossed military strategies back and forth and finally abandoned the concept, so young in its creation; they settled instead on how to direct the few they had to produce this enormous project. The fact that they were jinchuuriki was a blessing as it was a curse. The five of them could put in tremendous work before the travelling, homeless shinobi even arrived, they would help throughout the building process, and they would make sure the people had a fighting chance at survival, but eventually they would have to leave it in the hands of its own citizens. Akatsuki was still at large.

They passed the night in idle chatter, and finally accepted that they would not be able to form any concrete plans until they scoped the landscape and saw for themselves what they had to work with. Dawn broke and again they were packed and racing forward to this new promise land.

::

They arrived just after dusk several days later, and laid eyes on the spooned-out crop of earth they had laid their hopes on for any kind of future. It was better in some ways than expected, in others it was a catastrophe, but it was enough for the long oppressed vessels. They set up camp in a hurry and slept the night peacefully through with only one guard; they had not been so lax since long before they'd known another's name, but there in the desert with mountains circling it like loving arms, awaiting the dawn on a new life, they felt the universe change around them.

Maybe it was time for them to build a real life, one of those happy ones where the biggest pain is that the sand won't stay out of the house, or maybe there's a drought this year but it's okay because they can always pass into the Fire country and nourish themselves and their lands with neighboring villages. They could have families of their own. They could love this place and its people from the deepest beings of their hearts, and they would love them just as much.

As they dreamt that night, it was on cool sand and packed clay, a few sparse weeds tickling them and light winds howling softly over them. It was in the company of the faces that they would see, every day, like friends. Real friends that come over and have dinner and throw parties together, celebrate the moments in life together, feel sad and joyful for. Those kinds of friends, that when the world wasn't upside down and hell bent on killing them, they could find happiness here, with these_friends_.

In the morning they tracked down a few rabbits and located a water source nearly an hour away; it was unmarked on their map and Yugito dug a slender claw into the empty spot with no writing utensils available. They were close enough, much to their delight, to the Fire country that though the land was sparse and desert, it wasn't entirely sand. Mud and barren dirt mixed in, and plans to use the sand to irrigate the lands back into health were drawn immediately. They spent the weeks playing in the water, slipping into neighboring towns and buying supplies, and beginning the initial construction projects, namely shelter to house them from the weather as the days dragged on, and laying the foundation for other homes.

By the time half of their time was up their own small construction had been padded and packed with sun baked clay, dried leaves were hung from the roof for luck, and walls were constructed in the small hut they were pushing for to be finished by the time the pregnant, sick, and elderly arrived. Yuudai and Yugito stuck around for the hardest part of the building; they gathered materials and dried, pounded, ground, and lashed for days, ensuring that the other jinchuuriki had more than enough supply to be well under way by the time the caravan arrived.

Their minds had quickly run in every direction imaginable while they worked under the sun, and it didn't take them to long to realize that though they might have structure, they didn't have money to support the village with. They could hardly announce themselves as open for business since they were technically squatting on a daimyo's land; they had received no approval for the settlement. They had to have coin to buy cloth until they could raise the livestock to make their own, they would need a supply to get through the approaching winter, and the planting season had long passed them by.

It was this realization that sent Yuudai headed further into the Wind country to pass him off as a rogue shinobi; they had to take up the mantle if the small settlement was going to have even a slim chance of survival. Yugito headed into the Fire, also selling her kunai and shuriken services to villages and wealthy patrons of the lands. They did their best to accept the quickest missions they could get their hands on, but they only had about a month before the refugees arrived, and their time would be up for the initial start-up.

The three remaining continued to labor over their tasks, but each felt keenly the loss of the two working shinobi. Gaara in particular painfully missed the trilling laughter Yugito spit out as often as possible. Joruri was sorely tempted to curl up with the two men again, but the tranquil magic of that night was long past, and she felt as if she might intrude on a romantic evening, so she kept to herself, and slept alone.

Naruto was the most detached, but the reason didn't lie on the jinchuuriki. He missed his friends greatly, but he was hell bent on getting as much done as possible. The murder of his village had driven him to the skittering edge of insanity for so long, and he felt like he was throwing himself a rope. Like he'd run and run and had just started to fall off the edge, but then he had this _thing_. He had this project, this one way he could fix some of the damage done, and he could almost see his fingers stretching out to snatch the end of this rope that he had been given. His mind was devoted and singular.

Every day he was up with the rising sun, tearing into the neighboring tree line with his knife, other times he used only chakra. They could spend only a few hours in the morning actually gathering their wood supply for the days' construction projects, as they still had to lug the trunks back to their small investment in the desert, and then complete the projects themselves before the sun set and the night grew so dark they could barely see their fingertips.

They fell into a routine, and though it felt more than a little incomplete without the other two jinchuuriki, they found to their own varying amazement that it was easy. It was almost natural. _Almost._ Naruto become more and more driven the more days that passed them by, and he unintentionally snubbed Gaara. When he found himself swinging upside down and a slightly drawn-in brow arching over narrowed green eyes, he apologized with utmost sincerity and begged for his life, much to the delight of the Kazekage.

Joruri for her part went about her tasks quietly, barely uttering a word for days at a time. She wasn't withdrawn, and she did not shun them, but she was reserved. She was poised and dignified and not-at-all the wild thing that had torn across the battle field. Gone was the woman who had planted tender kisses on Yugito's brow and cheeks as the girl screamed out her fears, and in her place was the stranger they knew in the beginning.

It was its own problem however, and both men knew in the back of their minds it was an issue that would simply have to wait for a day when anything out of complete synchronization would not result in potential destruction, because the villagers that were finally going home, and they rushed to make it one.

So instead they did not comment, and she did not ask why. For a moment they thought she had passed a phase when Yugito returned to deliver the decent sum of money she had managed to earn through dull yet incredibly quick missions, and Joruri had cried out in joy at seeing her face.

But by nightfall she was quiet again, and Yugito was just too exhausted to wonder what had happened.

Yuudai was gone for another two days, cutting it thinly close to the prospected date of arrival. He dropped off a similar portion to Yugito's, and with their collected wages they discovered that they did not possess even a quarter of the money it would require to get through the winter.

"But it's a start," Yugito said through a shaky smile, worried greatly over what it would mean for them if they could not withstand a winter. The elderly, the children, the sick, they would die first, and that meant all of the history of the villages they came from would die with them. They would lose their namesakes, their strategy and fighting styles.

It had taken them a month to collect less than a quarter of the expenses, they would have to earn the same amount over four more to be comfortably set for the winter. The first frost was 6 weeks out, they had a month and a half to build houses and raise the funds with forty shinobi, roughly half of which were incapacitated or just too young, and themselves.

The same scattered thought flittered through Naruto's mind, and he shook his head in dismay. "We'll get there, somehow. All of these people, they have all survived something terrible, something that ripped them away from their birthplace, their loved ones, their homes. I don't think a few million snowflakes are going to do them in." Yuudai cracked a lopsided grin at the petulant tone in the blond jinchuuriki's voice.

Joruri contributed nothing to the conversation; she only rose a few minutes later enshrouded in her vaguely mystifying serenity and began to prepare the evenings meal with fresh caught fish in the riverbed they were planning on rerouting. The four remaining spent their time enjoying each other's company as comfortably as could be. The traveling jinchuuriki shared their stories of conquest and battle, most of which truly only involved laborious tasks and the strangely ever-haphazard _'rescue the cat_'.

They let the night pass with ease, and each vocally subjected Joruri to praise and affection for her culinary skills. She accepted with only a single nod and nothing further. Eye colors spanning the spectrum stayed with her in their quiet ways, and she didn't seem to feel them upon her at all. They again left no guard out and slept the night through. Naruto jolted awake as the sun's rays crept over the horizon, and he began his daily track towards the stream where he could bathe and stretch before he attacked the next section of wood.

Gaara rose with him, and the others followed as their sleep released them. They spent the day jogging back and forth between the forest and the foundation they were slowly laying. Naruto had given a massive burst of chakra up for the sake of having many hands, a thing he did frequently but with care; he couldn't be caught dead on his feet if an enemy showed its face at the wrong moment. Today he had backup however, so he spent the energy and his clones immediately went to work.

The second house was well into its final roofing states before the caravan arrived, nearly a week and a half behind the approximated date. The jinchuuriki were greeted with exhausted faces and sparkling eyes. They looked over the small crowd as they gathered; a new child was introduced to the vessels with mixed feelings among the onlookers. The child was born deformed, and she labored through her first weeks of life, her parents terrified she'd stop breathing at any time.

Heaviness hung in the atmosphere as perils were recounted, a marker buried somewhere in the desert where an elderly Suna shinobi had take his final breaths. Though his death was a weight, it was a generally accepted belief that the man's soul could not have picked a better time to return to Source, he had died in the deserts of his home, under the sun he knew like an intimate friend, and atop the sands he could read like a posted sign. This small sentiment bolstered spirits, and they spent the remaining hours of the day at the stream, fishing with only fingers and palms, bathing and playing in the waters as they washed the weeks of travel away.

Sasuke had not returned with the caravan, but he had only departed at the border of Suna itself. He left a small missive with a fairly inconspicuous person - a child - and had directed the villagers to their new lands while he only promised to return with supplies and construction tools after he attended to some personal business. Truthfully the youngest Uchiha had not wanted to leave the group, but he knew where he stood, and though he had helped them tremendously, he was a very minor part of the reason why they were there in the first place.

He did not want to make the joy of finding their home again to be tainted by his presence, and in a most uncharacteristic moment, both Sasuke and Joruri found themselves staring at the same moon in silence, a thousand miles apart, inwardly pleading with the glowing circle for guidance. While Sasuke was allowed to brew in his pains as he travelled, Joruri was not afforded such luxuries. She immediately went to work with several of the capable shinobi to begin constructing the frames of houses that came in with such abundance now it was only a matter of how many projects she could direct at once that held them in any sort of pace.

Naruto headed the team of ninja stripping trees of their branches and slicing into trunks at the lowest point possible; they could not afford to skim on any resource now, and it was still a sad moment to tear into the trees and steal their flesh away. Blessings and thanks were given daily to the souls of the trees, and the caravan buzzed with activity. Joruri was the first to leave; she went as the others had done, and worked for several months under the guise of rogue. Yugito and Yuudai headed out as well, splitting as they had done before lest they catch the attention of anyone looking for something to prey on. Gaara took over Joruri's position after she left, directing resources to best accommodate the days' plans. They quickly organized ways in which even the infirm and elderly could be of substantial aid. The older ninja spent their days fishing to bring enough back to ease growling stomachs and collecting herbs and wild vegetables.

Fruits were sparse, but what little was found was given to the children as treats, and even the little ones were put to use. When they were not subject to the lectures and lessons of their parents they sat in a single circle and braided rope lashed together out of long, sinewy strips of bark. Their work was greatly appreciated, in each child felt the first swells of pride that comes with being deemed_important._

By the time the first snow fell they had enough stored wood supply to last three winters for the small company, half as much food as they would need was smoked and tightly shut away in a powerfully built storage hut, and more than enough dried and preserved herbs to supply medicines and flavor. Clothing was a different problem, and they were forced to improvise to the best of their abilities. The shinobi that were considered healthy and able to fulfill multiple roles were given thick coats and gloves, boots and wool pants to prevent illness whilst working in the snow and ice.

Those that were not or could not be out in the cold were given the old clothes of the working to bundle up in as much clothing as possible and took over maintaining a path in between the wood mound and the center of their small village. They were allowed five months of peace before reality hit them again, and they were not prepared at all.

* * *

A/N: You know...this chapter is just all over the place. Lol, damn...my thoughts seriously _drift_places.


End file.
